One leading environmental expert is urging the government to introduce subsidies in order to promote the uptake of green technologies.

Gordon Miller, editor of whatgreenhome.com, made the call for financial incentives after arguing that the government was misguided in its strategy for combating greenhouse gas emissions.

He reserved particular criticism for the target of making all new homes zero carbon by 2016, noting that such a policy ignores the emissions caused by the country's existing housing stock of 24 million dwellings.

"Even if all new homes built from now on were immediately zero carbon, it would represent only a tiny percentage saving in carbon dioxide emissions," Mr Miller insisted.

He continued: "The government must address the bigger issue and encourage homeowners to take action by offering incentives such as tax breaks for introducing energy-saving home improvements and subsidies for using green energy."

According to the Carbon Trust, about 27 per cent of the UK's harmful CO2 emissions currently stem from personal dwellings, many of which lack even the most basic energy conserving technologies such as double glazing insulation.

© Adfero Ltd

Author:  Joanne McCabe

Publish our Green issues articles on your own site!

All our Green issues articles are available for republishing, provided the links in the content remain intact. You can also use our RSS news feed to republish all of our Green issues articles.