How SNP's lack of progress on net zero is making fuel poverty worse

With the UK Climate Change Committee earlier this year declaring the Scottish Government 2030 climate target was no longer credible, the new legislative programme must include measures to tackle emissions from Scotland’s biggest and most persistent carbon emitters, including heat in buildings and agriculture.

One of the most prominent and urgent is how we heat our homes and buildings. Getting policy in this sector back on track will create new jobs, warmer homes and improve the health of many currently living in fuel poverty.

Currently our buildings are responsible for about 20 per cent of our greenhouse gas emissions, and this has barely fallen over the past decade. Meanwhile, fuel poverty has reached record levels as energy prices soared. This winter, households are expected to pay twice what they did in 2019, before the pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine. Our dependence on oil and gas has left us particularly exposed to these external shocks.

To cut our homes’ carbon pollution to zero and end our exposure to those unstable fossil fuel prices, we need to swap our oil and gas boilers for something cleaner. Heat pumps and heat networks can use Scotland’s abundant renewable electricity, drastically cutting the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere when we turn on our heating. 

Heat pumps can save you money

Our homes are also amongst the oldest and least energy efficient in Europe, with one in every four pounds spent on heating an inefficient home lost through the walls, roofs and windows. Better insulation will make it cheaper to install technologies like heat pumps and provide permanent reductions to energy bills.

Greening our homes isn’t just good for the planet. Research that WWF recently commissioned with Nesta, the UK’s innovation charity, showed that with the right reforms by the UK Government to our energy market, virtually all homes in Scotland would enjoy lower energy bills after fitting a heat pump. Today, even without reform, we estimate that around 600,000 households could lower their bills by making the switch. 

But there are even more benefits than those important cost savings. If our homes are warmer, there’s less chance of people experiencing poor health, thereby easing the burden on the NHS. With better insulated homes, we can also reduce the likelihood that a household falls into fuel poverty, which currently affects one in three households in Scotland. Had the Scottish Government made better progress on insulation, fewer people would be struggling with their bills. There are economic benefits, too – creating new jobs and re-training opportunities for heating and insulation engineers right around the country. 

No time to waste

To realise these benefits, we need to hugely increase investment in insulation and cleaner heating in Scotland’s homes. In 2021 the Scottish Government’s Heat in Buildings Strategy outlined plans to do so, by setting minimum efficiency standards for all homes to meet, and deadlines by which use of fossil boilers must end. Unfortunately, three years since the strategy was proposed, a Bill has yet to be proposed to the Scottish Parliament. 

Standards and regulation are vital to give industry the confidence to invest and retrain, and households clarity about the work that must be done. Today, the cost of insulation and heat pumps is high, and will only come down as the industry expands and matures. Although these regulations won’t take effect for many years yet, the earlier they are put in place the earlier we give households and industry that vital confidence. 

That’s why there’s no more time to waste, and the Heat in Buildings Bill must be included in the Programme for Government next week. For Scotland to meet its emission targets and improve living standards, we must accelerate the move to cleaner heating that will free households from unstable fossil fuel prices, create warmer, healthier homes and create jobs across the country, helping to boost the economy.

9 out of 13 climate targets missed

Standards and regulation are key ingredients to create a successful move away from polluting heating, but just as important are grants that currently help households make these upgrades. The Scottish Government currently provides fully funded upgrades to vulnerable households, and boosting these schemes now would help those affected by the recent cut to the winter fuel allowance.

The Scottish Government has failed to meet nine out of the last 13 annual climate targets.  To make up for this, the immediate rollout of policies such as cleaner heating is crucial. That’s why the Heat in Buildings Bill must be introduced no later than the autumn this year to make sure it can regulate for cleaner heating and energy efficiency later this decade.

As well providing more certainty for how we heat our homes, the Programme for Government needs to look at the agriculture sector. Agriculture has also struggled to cut emissions and needs support to both mitigate and adapt to our changing climate.

We want the Scottish Government to set out now how it will use existing funding to better support outcomes for climate, nature and people. This should include ambitious plans for tackling climate change and nature loss, while still producing nutritious food.  

It’s crucial this Programme for Government joins the dots and shows a commitment to reducing the impacts of climate change, while protecting the environment and restoring nature. No one should be left behind.

Claire Daly is head of policy at WWF Scotland