Consumers need to be taken on the journey towards net-zero
10th October 2019 | Commercial Energy
With a government commitment to reduce emissions to net-zero by 2050, it has become even more important to look at how households can be encouraged to move towards low-carbon heating systems, a group of industry experts has said at a Liquid Gas UK Fringe Event at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester. Lesley Rudd, Chief Executive of the Sustainable Energy Association kicked things off saying that people required more guidance from government on how to deliver change.
“There are pollsters who are coming up with lots of data which show that people care about climate change and want to do something about it, so obviously we need policies that will help them to do something about it. There is no point in just setting some targets. You’ve got to set out the steps along the way, that is good for business and is good for consumers as well because you can see what the direction of travel is and what you need to do.”
Net-zero
Sophia Haywood, Public Affairs Manager at Liquid Gas UK, highlighted there was still more to be done by both industry and government to persuade consumers about the importance of adopting low carbon alternatives, such as bioLPG. Citing new figures from uSwitch, she said, “Around 31% of homeowners would be willing to pay a bit more for decarbonisation. They recognised it was important and they’d be happy to pay. I think it worked out about an average of about £38 extra per month. But there was at least 53% who didn’t think they should pay anything towards decarbonisation. They thought either the government should pay, or the energy industry should foot it.”
She added, “So while it is great to see that there is a section of the population that are willing to pay a little more – we still have a long way to go.”
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