School of Geography and the Environment

40% House Conference:
A one-day conference at The Royal Society, London

The 40% House Project sets an agenda for reducing carbon emissions from the UK housing stock by at least 60% by 2050, in line with the Government's Energy White Paper and the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. In drawing up potential policies for low-carbon housing in the UK by 2050, the 40% House report takes in:

• the rate of turnover in the housing stock;
• the need to integrate more careful use of energy with low- and zero-carbon energy technologies such as heat pumps, solar water heating, photovoltaics and combined heat and power;
• the urgent need to eliminate fuel poverty;
• the potential impact of climate change on demand for heating and cooling;
• ways of minimising any increased demand for cooling;
• the extent to which peak load electricity load can be reduced;
• social and cultural factors, such as changes in household size and ideas of comfort.

We have brought together vital issues concerning energy, carbon and housing, and propose some radical solutions. These must be combined with the debates about house prices and location. The scale of the challenge.

Dwellings in the UK account for about 25% of total carbon emissions. While housing is becoming better insulated with more efficient heating systems, there is a trend towards more space and more appliances per person, with higher standards of comfort. Fuel poverty is still affecting over 3 million households. Overall demand for energy by domestic buildings has not stopped rising, while the signals that the climate is changing are increasing. The debate on housing includes the issue of high house prices in some parts of the country and uncertainty about where to build the millions of new homes that will be needed. The UK will probably meet its obligations under the Kyoto Agreement, but the prospects of reaching its more ambitious but necessary targets are receding. The challenge of a 60% reduction in residential emissions is huge – but possible.

The project was set up with funding from the UK Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and DEFRA's Market Transformation Programme. The research was carried out by the Lower Carbon Futures programme at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford (who co-ordinated the work), the Manchester Centre for Civil and Construction Engineering (MCCCE) at The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST, now a part of the University of Manchester), and the School of Engineering & Physical Sciences at Heriot Watt University.