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Increasing investment for commercial energy efficiency

 

An Aldersgate Group and CUSP policy briefing

Reducing energy demand through greater efficiency can help the UK meet its legally binding climate targets, limit increases in energy bills, tackle fuel poverty, and drive economic growth, job creation and business investment in skills. Better quality commercial spaces can support greater productivity for those who work within them and developing policies to support better efficiency for businesses and the public sector would save £570m per year.

Increasing energy efficiency in commercial buildings should be a priority: there are about 1.8m nondomestic buildings in the UK accounting for 12% of greenhouse gas emissions. The UK’s building and industrial retrofit investment potential was valued at £3-6bn between 2014 and 2020 while energy efficiency accounted for nearly half of total low carbon and renewable energy (LCRE) turnover in 2016 at £20.7bn and over two thirds of LCRE employment at 141,500 full time jobs.

This policy paper considers how to increase energy efficiency investment in the commercial buildings market to support the delivery of the Clean Growth Strategy.

[1]The UK’s building stock is responsible for 19% of total UK domestic greenhouse gas emissions. To meet the UK’s legally
binding climate commitments cost effectively, these emissions must be reduced by 20% from 2016 levels, by 2030. Committee
on Climate Change (June 2017) Meeting Carbon Budgets: Closing the Policy Gap
[2]UKGBC (June 2014) A Housing Stock Fit for the Future: Making home energy efficiency a national infrastructure priority
[3]Imperial College London (April 2016) Managing Heat System Decarbonisation
[4]UKGBC (February 2017) Building Places That Work for Everyone
[5]The Association for Decentralised Energy (September 2015) Less Waste, More Growth
[6]For more on policies to support energy efficiency, see Aldersgate Group (July 2017) Energy efficiency in the UK’s buildings:
key priorities for the new government
[7]BEIS (November 2016) Heat in Buildings: The Future of Heat – Non-domestic buildings Consultation
[8]Bloomberg New Energy Finance (October 2014) Energy Efficiency Trends Vol. 8
[9] https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/bulletins/finalestimates/2016

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