The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has said that a replacement for the Zero Carbon Homes initiative, effectively scrapped by the government in July, is one of two “main concerns” for the Committee alongside the development of electric vehicles.
CCC chairman Lord Deben and chief executive Matthew Bell were providing the Energy and Climate Change select committee with a progress report this morning when Lord Deben admitted that while he understood replacement support mechanisms were in the pipeline, it was of some concern that nothing had been disclosed as yet.
Lord Deben continued that the CCC could not assess the impact of such policy decisions until the replacements were revealed, however select committee member Alan Whitehead suggested that the government’s Zero Carbon Homes targets are on course to be “laughably missed” as a result of a decision which he suggested surprised even energy secretary Amber Rudd.
Deben then concluded that the government would lose its “moral authority” if the requisite new policies did not come through.
Also up for discussion during the session was the future of the Green Deal, another energy efficiency support programme culled by the Conservative government amidst accusations that it had flattered to deceive and garner the uptake expected of it.
Lord Deben remarked that much of it had been “too difficult” for the general public to understand and that the programme had failed to understand public behaviours behind taking advantage of the Green Deal, which was ultimately to drive energy consumption, and therefore costs, down.
“It’s just got to be easier, and there’s a really good chance of doing that now,” Lord Deben said.
