Gas boilers must be banned by households to tackle the cost of living crisis and help Britain meet its green ambitions, warned Infrastructure King Boris Johnson.
Sir John Armitt, chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission, said ministers must reiterate the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, to apply to natural gas boilers to “ensure security for investors in greener alternatives’.
So far, the government has rejected calls for a total ban on natural gas boilers, but said it was seeking to phase out new 2035 installations “towards cheaper and more efficient alternatives”.
But Sir John said the sale of all gas boilers should be completely banned by 2035, warning that the “rising price of gas” has made the decarbonisation case more urgent as households struggle with the cost of living crisis .
He said: “The government cannot be cautious.
“Ministers have made bold interventions to stop the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles, showing what can be achieved.
It is time for the government to provide similar certainty for decarbonisation of heat by funding projects to decarbonize 30,000 homes over the next five years and banning the sale of natural gas boilers in the UK by 2035.
“The deadline with the necessary milestones will provide security for investors in greener alternatives and will give the industry an incentive to accelerate innovation, which in turn will reduce initial costs for consumers.”
Government sources insist that Sir John’s invention does not take into account the fact that there is no “silver bullet” to wean households from natural gas. A combination of heat pumps, heat networks and hydrogen will be needed, they said.
But investing in existing gas infrastructure is “very expensive”, the source added. “We work with the industry to reduce costs.”
Six pilot schemes are currently being tested by the government, which mixes hydrogen with natural gas in a 25:75 ratio.
Other countries, however, have gone further. The Netherlands has banned natural gas central heating since 2026 and introduced the mandatory use of heat pumps or connected heat networks.
Writing in The Telegraph, Sir John, who was responsible for developing the rail link in the Channel Tunnel and overseeing the London Olympics program, presented findings from a report by the University of Birmingham’s Energy Institute entitled “Local Delivery Routes. heat ‘.
He said: “Unless we replace 24 million gas boilers, we will never reach net zero.
“This means that, contrary to some of the positions circulating after the invasion of Ukraine, the rising price of gas makes decarbonisation of heat even more urgent – no less.
“Indeed, tackling the decarbonisation of domestic heat provides a central platform through which the government can tackle some of its biggest challenges: energy security; air quality; health; jobs and skills; fuel poverty and equalization; the cost of living – the list is long. “
Sir John said the government’s plans for an unforeseen tax and a 0% VAT reduction on energy-saving materials for the next five years were “useful”.
He added: “But [they] stay close to the long-term levels of ambition we need to see to deal with the heat problem.
“They will have limited impact in the short term on the root cause of emissions, rising costs and energy insecurity: our huge dependence on gas. We now have the opportunity to develop a single set of heat policies to deal decisively with all three. “
Sir John’s comments follow criticism from the Business Committee, which found that the government’s approach to decarbonizing home heating was not clear.
Labor MP Darren Jones, chairman of the committee, said in February that replacing natural gas boilers was “a huge task and we are not making enough progress”.
He added: “Ministers cannot just put this on the market – the government has to deal with the cost of heating our homes in a circle and propose joint policies that solve these problems together.”
A spokesman for the business department said: “We encourage those who choose to install heat pumps by reducing the cost of the installation by up to £ 5,000 and reducing VAT to 0 per cent, while working with industry to reduce the cost of each unit by up to half until 2025
Comment: Ministers must ban gas boilers to deal with cost-of-living crisis
By Sir John Armitt
Global events and rising living costs have rightly consumed much of our domestic political bandwidth and provoked renewed discussions about our need for greater energy security. These discussions are welcome and in many respects overdue, but we must ensure that they do not distract from the existing challenges we face and the existing measures we have in place to address them.
The decarbonisation of the economy, our building stock and our infrastructure poses such challenges. Although many of the solutions that are emerging to improve our long-term energy security would also support decarbonisation, there are some quick gains. But one area that has the potential to bring us closer to both goals is to reduce the amount of gas used to heat the home.
The University of Birmingham’s Energy Institute has long been a leader in upholding the urgency and efficiency needed to tackle this particular challenge. His latest report, Roads for Local Heat Supply, is the result of the hard work of a number of industry and academic experts who formed the Commission for the Decarbonisation of Heat at the University I chair, and its recommendations form the basis of the insights below.
Decarbonisation of domestic heat is the main remaining challenge of climate policy. Advances in heat lag behind electricity and transport, with heat for buildings accounting for 23% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions and heat for homes alone accounting for 17%. As a result, we need to reduce heat emissions more in the next eight years than in the last 30.
The consequences of this are clear: unless we replace 24-meter gas boilers, we will never reach net zero.
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