 Britain proposed on Thursday to allow all households from 2012 to apply for loans and cash to save energy and cut carbon emissions, costs energy companies are likely to meet and pass on to all consumers.
Green groups welcomed the plans but criticized a perceived lack of clarity and timidity in timing and funding.
"We need to move from incremental steps forward on household energy efficiency to a comprehensive national plan," said Energy and Climate Change minister Ed Miliband.
"Energy efficiency and low-carbon energy are the fairest routes to curbing emissions, saving money for families, improving our energy security and insulating us from volatile fossil fuel prices," he told reporters and trade and policy experts.
One proposal under the plans, open for consultation from Thursday, would allow any household to get a loan to pay for insulation or to install renewable sources of heating, and repay that from the resulting energy savings.
"We want to ensure that this great British "refurb" is based on a plan which over time covers every area and every house in every area," Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said today in a speech in London. "Families are losing up to 300 pounds ($428) a year from inadequate energy efficiency."
The U.K., enduring its worst winter since 1991, is planning to save energy and cut residential greenhouse-gas emissions to almost zero through a "sustainable makeover" on each of the country's 27 million households.
The aim was for all UK homes to make near-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the energy and climate ministry said in a statement announcing its "Heat and Energy Saving" strategy.
SOURCESLabels: energy efficiency |
