The Scottish Government has published its Heat in Buildings Strategy.
The strategy outlines the steps the Government plans to take to reduce emissions from Scotland’s buildings and to “remove poor energy performance as a driver of fuel poverty”.
It details a pathway to zero emissions buildings by 2045 and includes both short and long-term actions, as well as commitments to accelerate the transformation of the Scottish building stock.
It will require over a million homes and the equivalent of 50,000 non-domestic buildings to convert to zero emissions heat by 2030.
Zero Carbon Buildings Minister Patrick Harvie said: “The ambition set out in our Heat in Buildings Strategy is significant, and rightly so on the eve of COP26 coming to Glasgow. Urgent action is needed if we are to stand a chance of limiting warming to under 1.5 degrees.
“As we take these bold steps to reduce emissions from our homes and buildings, we must do so in a way that leaves no-one behind. This Strategy sets out the guiding principles that will ensure our actions to decarbonise heat do not have a detrimental impact on rates of fuel poverty and instead serve to tackle social inequalities.
“This is a huge transition, affecting communities, businesses and households all across Scotland and we must work collaboratively – across public and private sectors, across parliament, and across governments, to deliver it.
“Our strategy also makes it clear that, to deliver the transformational change required, the UK Government must take urgent action in reserved areas to support the just transition to decarbonised heating. Our Strategy commits to phasing out the need to install new or replacement fossil fuel boilers, and to consult on introducing new legislation and regulations to underpin this transition and ambitious investment programme, but equivalent action from the UK Government in reserved areas, such as on energy pricing, will be essential to deliver these commitments.
“It is essential that homes and buildings achieve a good standard of energy efficiency and by 2033 we want to see all homes meeting at least an EPC band C standard where feasible and cost effective. This will help ensure energy costs in future are affordable and that our actions continue to remove poor energy efficiency as a driver of fuel poverty.”
Commenting on the publication of the strategy, Federation of Master Builders (FMB) Scotland Director, Gordon Nelson, said:
“With the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow only weeks away, we welcome the publication of the Heat in Buildings Strategy. Scotland’s statutory emissions targets require us to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. The scale of the challenge is huge, with around 1 million Scottish homes needing to have energy retrofit works delivered to reduce their energy consumption. As the strategy states ‘high standards of energy efficiency are essential to reduce the overall demand for energy’.
“It is right that a fabric first approach will be taken and that local, small building firms are ideally placed to deliver the appropriate green upgrades to homes across Scotland. We also need energy retrofit measures to be integrated into every appropriate home improvement project. This will enable energy retrofit work to be delivered at scale by backing local builders in every community throughout Scotland. We look forward to working with the Scottish Government on developing the Supply Chain Delivery Plan and central to this will be creating sustainable consumer demand for energy retrofit works.”
