Why is the Green Deal needed?

At a local level, the Green Deal will enable many households and businesses to improve the energy efficiency of their properties without consuming so much energy and wasting so much money. At a national level, the UK needs to become more energy efficient to reduce its UK emissions greenhouse gas emissions which risk dangerous climate change.

The Climate Change Act 2008 legislated for a reduction in our carbon emissions, compared to 1990, of 34% by 2020 and on our way to 80% by 2050. It set legally-binding carbon budgets for our country for the next 12 years across all sectors of the UK economy - including our homes and communities, and our workplaces. Reducing demand for energy through eliminating waste cost effectively is one of the best ways to reduce emissions. Three quarters of the energy we use in our homes is for heating our rooms and water, most of which comes from gas-fired boilers. Together this accounts for 13% of the UK’s CO2e emissions while our workplaces are responsible for 20%.

To help meet the carbon budgets we need to cut emissions in our homes and communities by 29% and by 13% in our workplaces by 2022 (on 2008 levels). To do this we need to make our homes, communities and workplaces more energy efficient, and heat and power them from low carbon sources. Support through the Green Deal for implementing energy efficiency measures will play a key role here. The Green Deal will deliver energy saving packages to millions of homes and businesses across the country. Consequently the scheme provides opportunities for skilled and unskilled labour; from assessment to installation, manufacturing to supply, over the length and breadth of Britain, for many years to come. By ensuring a high uptake of energy efficiency measures in households and business, the national demand for imported gas could be reduced considerably. With more than a third of our gas currently imported and UK gas production on a downward trend, the net result could be a saving on imports at a national level. Source DECC

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For more information regarding the scheme for home insulation, heating and renewable energy installers refer to the Green Deal www.greendealadvisersuk.com website.