Associate Feature: Action needed to tackle the climate crisis

It may be the most heated debate of the day. The soaring cost of energy plus concerns about security of supply – combined with the critical need to address a global climate crisis – has presented us with an acute dilemma. 

Just how are we supposed to achieve a world in which everyone can enjoy life and work with a low carbon impact – yet at the same time solve the growing problem of fuel poverty and ensure we can all live in affordably warm homes?

It’s this challenge that Changeworks is tackling with an ambitious – but it says achievable – goal. Josiah Lockhart is the Chief Executive of the leading environmental charity that’s been delivering solutions for low carbon living for over 35 years and which can justifiably claim to have a deep reserve of impartial experience from which to draw.

“Addressing decarbonisation and fuel poverty are issues that are inextricably linked,” says Lockhart.  “You can’t do one without the other; if you focus solely on decarbonisation without remembering that people are a part of the journey, you’ll end up with a solution that isn’t just and fair.

“Likewise, if you take the current approach of focusing on fuel poverty and implementing sticking plaster fixes, we won’t solve the long-term problem. A low carbon society must also be a fair one, tackling both fuel poverty and inequalities.”

The challenge in Scotland, he concedes, is a daunting one: the country (not to decry its many attractions) has famously long, chilly, and damp winters … but some of the least energy-efficient homes in Europe. 

Energy consumed from heating contributes to a significant 13 per cent of overall CO2 emissions and with the current energy crisis, ensuring that houses and flats don’t literally have money leak out of the walls and windows is more important than ever.

Lockhart believes that the decarbonisation of Scotland’s homes through improved energy efficiency measures – and the electrification of heat – is critical to meeting its climate targets and contributing to the effort to keep temperatures from exceeding safer limits. 

The good news is that Scotland already has the technologies necessary to deliver low-carbon living but the need to accelerate this is critical. 

Changeworks is engaging with some 100,000 households across Scotland, working collaboratively with partners such as local government organisations, registered social landlords and householders to drive transformation in energy efficiency and tackle fuel poverty. 

Its Affordable Warmth services provide energy advice and support to people in fuel poverty and Changeworks also delivers Home Energy Scotland in the South East and Highlands and Islands on behalf of  Energy Saving Trust funded by the Scottish Government, again providing impartial advice and support. 

There is, says Lockhart, no ‘one size fits all’ solution to creating warmer, energy-efficient homes.  “Our housing stock is very diverse, comprising everything from sandstone tenements in the towns and cities to old crofts houses in the Highlands and Islands – and we have homes being built right now that will probably have to be retrofitted in 10 years, because by then they won’t reach the required standards.

“It’s crucial that we start to tackle the problem now as costs are going to be so much higher in five to 10 years. Yes, it’s a challenge and I don’t think we should pretend that it’s not, but people should know that there is support available.” 

However, he adds, progress depends on significant effort, made both by government but also by others who recognise it’s imperative to make improvements immediately and not put off difficult tasks. “Having spent the last few months touring the different types of housing stock we have in Scotland, one of my personal concerns about retrofitting is that we can’t delay to retrofit more challenging housing stock. 

“In certain remote locations in the Highlands in particular, where entire communities are hard to retrofit, there’s a real danger these people will be left behind in the kind of transition we will have to go through. So, taking a whole of Scotland approach is what’s needed.”

What are prospects, then, of achieving net-zero emissions of all greenhouse gases by 2045, as committed to by Scotland’s Climate Change Act 2019 and which is more onerous than a net-zero carbon target, which commits only to balancing carbon dioxide emissions?

Lockhart has clearly been asked this before. “That’s a very good question.” He notes that in December last year the Climate Change Committee (CCC) rather caustically commented that the Scottish Government’s progress in meeting its own targets on carbon emissions are “in danger of becoming meaningless” because of its own “magical thinking”. Less than a vote of confidence from the CCC.   

“I think it’s very important to constantly challenge government about the pace at which things are happening to ensure these targets remain a worthwhile objective to talk about,” says Lockhart.  “To decarbonise a million homes in Scotland by 2030 as an interim stage in decarbonising the total housing stock by 2045 is – to say the least – extremely ambitious.” 

“We’re rising to the challenge of attempting to be leaders in that journey but considering that we’re the largest managing agent in this space, engaging with 100,000 households and helping them begin to think about starting the work, that’s nothing compared to the challenge of a million houses … so we’ve a very long way to go before we’re delivering at a scale that will meet the current target. We have the experience to make a big difference, and working collaboratively with others to deliver is key. However, we also need further support and action from the Scottish Government.”

There’s no single organisation that will be able to confront all these formidable hurdles alone and a collaborative effort is clearly required. “This year we reaffirmed a strategic partnership with the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, the Home Energy Scotland network is providing financial support in these difficult times and there are several other agencies working to overcome obstacles. It will take all of us to do it together and we need to scale effectively to rise to that challenge. 

It’s an approach that will also require focus and Changeworks’ Strategy 2022-2025 stresses a clear purpose: above all, to decarbonise Scotland’s homes. Noting that the cost-of-living crisis, and high energy costs result in rising levels of fuel poverty and is driving interest in decarbonisation and energy efficiency it says that that radical action will be required to hit the Scottish Government target of only 15% of households in Scotland living in fuel poverty by 2030.

The electrification of heat is also critical to meeting Scotland’s climate targets and is key to lowering carbon emissions. “There have been a lot of conversations about low carbon heating in Scotland and we believe that electrification is the fastest way to achieve this,” says Lockhart. 

“We’ve the technology in place to accomplish that, and the Scottish Government’s Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition plan published in January points to the benefits of the low costs of renewable electricity. So, from our viewpoint, technology such as heat pumps or other electric heating systems are the obvious direction of travel in weaning us off fossil fuels.”

Lockhart agrees that public awareness and a willingness to engage with identifying solutions is visibly growing and is encouraged by this. “This critical issue has moved further up the agenda for many people because they increasingly understand the link between the inefficient use of energy and poverty.’’

That velocity has been inevitably constrained by unforeseen circumstances: the Covid pandemic meant going into houses to install insulation was considerably slowed down and more recently the war in Ukraine has applied pressures to the supply chain.  “Plus, there are simply not enough installers of this equipment at the speed we need in Scotland.  

“We need a Team Scotland approach to accomplish this and at Changeworks we’re starting on a major internal project over the next six months touching on the supply chain and how it can more efficiently deliver for our projects – and we have a lot.  But if we look at the bigger, wider ambition, government and others must get together to demonstrate that demand, so that the supply chain has the confidence to scale and meet that demand. This would create opportunities and skilled jobs.”

Despite the scale of the task, Lockhart is remarkably buoyant about Changeworks’ role in taking it on and facing it down. “While a lot of people spend a lot of time talking about problems and challenges, these aren’t about inventing some amazing new technology.  Rather, they’re bureaucratic or linking-up challenges. It’s all about fixing many little things to unlock the chain. 

“Yes this will take effort and ambition – but we can build on that ambition and fix the links in the system to get things moving faster and do the hard work that’s needed to bring Scotland’s net-zero targets to fruition.” 

This article is sponsored by Changeworks.