Domestic futures—Which way to a low-carbon housing stock?

Abstract

This paper examines various routes to achieving a 60% carbon emission reduction from the UK housing stock by 2050 compared to 1996, using a new object-oriented housing stock and carbon model, DECarb. As housing is at present responsible for 26% of all UK emissions, housing carbon reduction is likely to be a key component for the overall 60% emission reduction target set by the UK Government's Energy White Paper in 2003. This paper compares 3 independently published sets of scenarios detailing possible routes and suggests that highly disaggregated approaches produce more credible data. The results also show that whilst there are many different routes to achieving the target from a technological standpoint, all of them will require significant shifts in current practice. We investigate other routes to achieving this target, while also meeting nearer term reductions of 50% by 2030. DECarb shows that significant challenges exist in meeting these requirements, though they are technically feasible. On this basis it also becomes clear that the domestic sector will not be able to offset smaller reductions from any other sector of the economy.