Home Truths

Heating UK homes, generates around 14% of that country's emissions. Eighty percent of domestic heating is provided by gas, an increasingly expensive, as well as polluting, non-renewable. Gas and oil are also commodities that producers can use to pressure other countries. In spite of these facts, UK Parliament's Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee judges that its government has no clear plan for moving away from using gas to heat UK homes, as well as reducing the associated emissions (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/03/uk-government-failing-to-cut-carbon-emissions-from-home-heating). Having strategies to reduce domestic heating with non-renewables (e.g. by using heat pumps or wind/solar generated electricity) and to improve the insulation of homes (reducing the need for energy provision) have never been more urgent. The cost of home heating is predicted shortly double, when the domestic energy cap is changed. Deferring the increased charges by giving loans to the energy suppliers, doesn't really solve anything. The BEIS say that current government strategy on this issue 'lacks clear direction'. 'Asleep at the wheel' might be a more accurate description?