Source: Sixth Carbon Budget, CCC
We need to reduce our carbon emissions
In June 2019, the UK Government set a target for the UK to be net zero by 2050. It also set an ambitious target to reduce carbon emissions by 68% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
In simple terms, this means that by 2050 the UK can’t be producing more greenhouse gas emissions than it’s simultaneously removing from the atmosphere. To meet this target, how we live individually and collectively – how we travel, eat and heat and power our homes – is going to need to change.
The electrification of transport is already well underway. However, the decarbonisation of our homes – and, more specifically, how we heat them – has lagged behind.
Heating and powering our homes accounts for 26% of our individual carbon footprints and roughly 20% of the UK’s total carbon emissions.
These emissions must be reduced if we are to hit the UK’s target of being net zero by 2050 and avoid the worst effects of climate change.
20%
Heating and powering our homes accounts for 20% of the UK’s total carbon emissions.
Source: Final UK greenhouse gas emissions national statistics: 1990 to 2020, UK Government
Tomorrow is coming quickly
Key targets to achieve by 2050
- 2025
45% of car sales are EVs
1 million heat pumps installed- 2030
98% of car sales are EVs
5.5 million heat pumps installed- 2035
EV car sales only
11.5 million heat pumps installed- 2050
27 million heat pumps installed
Many of these changes will be driven by legislation and government support:
- The UK Government’s Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate will require 100% of new cars and vans sold in 2035 to be electric (or other zero-emission) vehicles. There are interim targets for 80% of car and 70% of van sales to be zero-emission vehicles by 2030.
- The UK Government has set a target for phasing out fossil fuel heating systems from 80% of existing homes from 2035.
- As of April 2024, the Scottish Government’s New Build Heat Standard prevents all new builds from being constructed with greenhouse gas-producing heating systems, such as gas and oil boilers. Although the UK Government’s Future Homes Standard is not yet law, it proposes standards that would prevent new build homes in England from being constructed with fossil fuel, or greenhouse gas-emitting heating systems.
- Almost all homeowners in England, Scotland and Wales are eligible for a £7,500 government-funded grant for installing a heat pump via the UK Government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme, or the Scottish Government-funded Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan scheme. The grant for those living in rural areas in Scotland can extend by up to £9,000. People in Scotland can also apply for a Home Energy Scotland loan of up to £7,500, which can be used towards a heat pump installation or other energy-efficient or renewable energy generation system.
