Energy Performance Certificates and renting in Brighton – From “nice to know” to improved houses?

Photograph of paula kivimaa

Usually as a researcher I base my insights on the research and systematic empirical studies I carry out. However, on this particular occasion, the insights are of a more personal nature. Having started to do research on building energy efficiency policies about a year ago, I was interested to be faced with one specific policy instrument in the course of relocating from Finland to the UK – the Energy Performance Certificate.

The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) provides an assessment of the level of insulation of the property, its heating system, hot water and lighting, giving an overall energy efficiency rating and an environmental impact (CO2) rating. In other words, it provides a common standard against which all buildings can be compared and measured. All European countries are mandated to have a scheme in place for EPCs of both new and existing buildings, following the European Performance of Buildings Directive. Ideally, the EPC improves the quality of properties both for sale and let and encourages new investment on building energy efficiency through increased disclosure of information:

“Through the provision of information about a buildings’ energy performance, new occupiers are given the opportunity to make well-informed choices about the property thus changing the characteristics that drive value in the property market.”

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Posted in All Posts, CIED, Community Energy, Housing, Sussex and local

Paris warms up for climate event of the decade – Our Common Future under Climate Change

People on stage at the Our Common Future Under Climate Change conference

Last week, more than 2000 climate change researchers gathered in Paris for the ‘Our Common Future under Climate Change’ conference, an enormous and prestigious event as part of the preparations for the COP21 climate negotiations in Paris later this year. The talks and conversations were hugely diverse, but a key message was summed up by Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA: “Is it enough? No. But is it a good step? Yes”. Read more ›

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Posted in All Posts, Fossil fuels, policy, renewables

Are concepts like Europeanisation and multi-level governance still useful in thinking about energy policy in Europe?

Reflections on the inaugural UACES CRN EU Energy Policy workshop by Ralitsa Hiteva

 

I was lucky enough to take part of the UACES (The academic association for contemporary European Studies) Collaborative Research Network’s (CRN) inaugural EU Energy Policy workshop on the 25-26 June 2015 at the University of East Anglia. The workshop covered a wide range of topics: Energy and Climate Policy: Engaging internal actors and external partners; the challenges for multilevel governance; EU Renewable Energy Policy: Greening energy in Europe and abroad, and the EU energy market. The CRN is funded by UACES and runs from 2015 to 2018, with Dr. Jenny Fairbrass (Norwich Business School, UEA), Anna Herranz-Surralles (Department of Political Science, Maastricht University) and Israel Solorio Sandoval (Environmental Policy Research Centre, Freie Universität Berlin) as network coordinators. Read more ›

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The scrapping of the zero carbon homes undermines trust in government’s commitment to energy efficiency

The government’s decision to scrap the zero carbon homes target plus the equivalent for non-domestic houses is a major setback for achieving a low carbon UK and will undermine the credibility of the policy mix on building energy efficiency and beyond. The zero carbon homes target was announced in 2006 and, as the name suggests, was an obligation for any new home to be built from 2016 to be ‘zero carbon’. This includes improvements to be building fabric compared to standard new buildings and measures such as on-site renewable energy generation. Since this is difficult to achieve, the government then introduced so-called ‘allowable solutions’ which are measures which can be implemented off-site to reduce emissions to complement the on-site carbon savings. The recent announcement on the details of the allowable solutions has already been criticised as being ‘watered down’ compared to the original target.

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Posted in All Posts, CIED, Housing, News

How Scotland could make the most of its energy efficiency policies (and why the rebound effect could be a good thing)

CIED project partners at the Centre for Energy Policy (CEP) at University of Strathclyde together with Climate XChange recently held an event ‘How Scotland could make the most of its energy efficiency policies.’ Hosted by the Scottish Government, the event presented insights from recent CEP research, including work on household energy efficiency and rebound effects. Following an introduction by Scottish Government’s Chris Stark, the programme commenced with a discussion, led by Lisa Ryan of University College Dublin, on the multiple benefits of energy efficiency – including positive impacts on economic growth and human welfare. This was followed two senior researchers at Strathclyde – Karen Turner, Director of the Centre for Energy Policy who presented on industrial energy efficiency and productivity-led growth and Simon Gill on the energy supply industry.

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The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the individual authors and do not represent Sussex Energy Group.

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