Third Ofgem Report: We Can Do More To Cut Our Carbon Footprint

Ofgem is the Government body responsible for monitoring and reporting on carbon reductions as far as the major domestic gas and electricity companies are concerned. They’ve just published their 3rd annual report, which details the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) that that larger gas and electricity suppliers are bound to between 2008 and 2012. The target is set for domestic emissions, i.e. - home use. After 3 years worth of reports, suppliers had only achieved 67% of the target, despite the fact we are less than six months away from 2012. Of those, insulation and lighting schemes made the biggest savings - in fact up to 87% of the total reductions made. 

 While this is good news that they have looked at insulation and lighting, it also means that what they haven’t substantially tackled is home heating and everyday electricity use. Which of course is the main areas where they make their money. I really believe we have to take matters into our own hands now. Relying on the energy companies to cut carbon emissions is not enough - after all, they have a vested interest in selling us more fuel, at higher prices. And they certainly haven’t had any qualms introducing some very unwelcome price increases during the bitterest of winters. 

 If you read my guide to taking your own steps to cut your bills NOW you can get yourself ready for the winter. It’s really easy - a good starting place is to monitor your home electricity use. Power meters tell you where you are wasting electricity so that you know where to use standby power savers. The logic is beautifully simple: why pay for a useless standby light when you’re not actually using an appliance? The second key step is to cut your heating bills using heating controls. The latest state of the art technology ensures you use only what you need, when you really need it and you’ll find the savings stack up for years. These two simple steps can be the start of noticeably lower bills and the great feeling that you are doing the very best you can to help the environment at the same time. 

 Photo credit: Coins by Michal Ufniak