Sustainability Committee challenges Welsh Government to act now on carbon reduction

11.56.06am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 5th Mar 2008

The National Assembly's Sustainability Committee, which is chaired by Montgomeryshire AM Mick Bates, has today taken a new approach in making recommendations to the Welsh Assembly Government by outlining six major recommendations to reduce carbon emissions in Wales.

The recommendations, along with 20 others, form the basis of the Committee's report into residential carbon reduction. The 6 recommendations also contain the estimated amount of carbon that could be saved by the implementation of each one.

The Committee is conducting an inquiry into Carbon Reduction in Wales, scrutinising the Welsh Assembly Government on its contribution to the UK carbon reduction targets and proposals for meeting the 3% reduction targets outlined in the One Wales document. The first part of the inquiry published today deals with residential carbon reduction.

The report makes six headline recommendations to the Welsh Assembly Government. These are:

1. The Government should require developments of over 5 dwellings and all commercial developments to produce at least 10 per cent of their energy requirements through on site renewable energy or local decentralised sources.

2. The Government should require developments of less than 5 dwellings to reduce their predicted CO2 emissions by at least 25 per cent based on current building regulations through improvements to the energy performance of buildings, and/or the efficient supply of heat, cooling and power.

3. Building Regulations should be devolved as a matter of urgency.

4. The Government should adopt the Code for Sustainable Homes with immediate effect.

5. The Government should fund a programme of retrofitting of all existing hard to heat homes so that they meet one of the agreed levels in the Code for Sustainable Homes.

6. The Government should actively promote the Low Carbon Building programme in Wales and provide additional grants for micro-generation schemes in existing housing.

Mick Bates AM, Chair of the Committee, said: "Our homes are responsible for 27 per cent of the UK's carbon emissions. If the UK is to play its part in avoiding catastrophic climate change then we must drastically reduce them.

"The investment and the political courage required are substantial. But the results promise to be spectacular: fuel poverty wiped out, energy security enhanced and true leadership in the transition to a dynamic low-carbon economy. There is not a moment to lose.

"The Committee did not want to produce a report with dozens of recommendations left to gather dust, so we have come up with these six key actions which we believe the Welsh Assembly Government needs to take now, if it is serious about meeting the three per cent carbon reduction target in the One Wales agreement."