Earlier today, the Climate Change Committee published its advice for the government’s upcoming Seventh Carbon Budget. Their independent advice is published every 5 years and calculates what the new ceiling for our emissions should be, measures the UK’s progress on existing targets, and outlines steps we need to take to stay on track.
Lower bills and big opportunities
Today’s advice brings encouraging news for everyone. First, it shows how much we’ve already achieved: emissions are now reducing more than twice as fast as in 2008. Second, with the right policy actions we will see lower bills and the transition can help to create a fairer society – welcome news following Ofgem’s announcement yesterday about the rising energy price cap. Then finally, the advice outlines the huge opportunity ahead to decarbonise buildings, especially through clean heat.
Supporting the community sector to lead the way in reducing emissions is a priority for us at Social Investment Business. Through our current Energy Resilience Fund, organisations can secure blended finance to invest in heat pumps, clean power and become more energy efficient.
Lower bills
On publishing the advice, Emma Pinchbeck, chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, said:
“In this carbon budget… we start to see the economy making savings from this investment, and they make savings over and above what we would do if we stay dependent on fossil fuels”.
Shifting away from the volatile prices of gas brings security, stability and cheaper power for everyone. There are upfront costs to get us there – installing heat pumps, expanding renewable energy production and upgrading the grid – but the faster we decarbonise our homes, community centres and wider society, the sooner we’ll see consistently lower bills for everyone.
Big opportunities
The advice published today emphasises how buildings are the next big opportunity to continue reducing emissions and proposes that over the next 15 years half of homes should install a heat pump.
Buildings are identified as the biggest opportunity for reducing emissions in this latest Carbon Budget Advice: coming ahead of transport, waste, aviation and farming.
To make the most of this opportunity, the pace of action needs to accelerate. The UK is already bucking the trend across Europe with installations of heat pumps rising 63% between 2023 and 2024. But we can go even faster, and Social Investment Business is ready to support charities and social enterprises to do just that.
The advice published today argues that the roll-out rates for heat pumps and renewables will need to be “similar to those previously achieved for mass-market roll-outs of mobile phones, refrigerators, and internet connections”.
Our commitment to you
The opportunity ahead is vast, and the pace of change required will be like a fresh industrial revolution. For too long the role of the community sector in meeting this moment has been overlooked, but we are committed to working with the sector to ensure we can lead the way together.
With the launch of our Energy Resilience Fund, we’re providing finance and support to help charities and social enterprises to invest in the changes we need. We’ll also continue to push government for more support, protections and investment for charities and the social sector to seize these new opportunities.
This latest Carbon Budget Advice is clear: there are big opportunities ahead, and with the right actions over time, we will see lower bills and a fairer society – but to get there we must leap to action, focussing on our buildings, and especially how we heat them.
