'Government must restore heat pump funding and keep EV targets' says East Sussex community group, as UN climate summit begins

As the UN climate summit (COP31) begins in Turkey, local community benefit society Energise Sussex Coast is calling on the government to restore funding for heat pumps, keep its current Electric Vehicle (EV) targets and reject the Rosebank oil field in the North Sea.

Last month's budget cut nearly £800m from the Boiler Upgrade Scheme that subsidises the replacement of gas boilers with heat pumps. According to the Interntional Energy Agency, heat pumps are the ‘central technology’ for reducing the climate impact of our heating systems. Moreover, with the right government policies heat pumps could also dramatically lower

UK households' heating bills, according to research from the climate think tank E3G.

According to the National Audit Office, heating the UK’s 28 million homes accounted for 18% of all UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2021.

The government is also expected shortly to announce a major u-turn on EV targets, slashing the percentage of new car sales that must be fully-electric in 2030 from 80% to 50 – 60%.

This could lead to 3 million fewer fully-electric vehicles on UK roads by 2030 - costing consumers £3bn a year, as fully-electric vehicles are more than £1,000 per year cheaper to own than either petrol cars or so-called "plug-in hybrid" vehicles that run on both petrol and electricity.

It could also lead to the equivalent of an additional 147 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas, driving the climate crisis) being put into the atmosphere.

The government's final decision on whether to grant approval for the Rosebank oil field is expected imminently. It has long been known that no new oil and gas fields are compatible with safe climate thresholds. Moreover, granting approval to Rosebank would do nothing to lower UK energy bills.

Around two-thirds of the estimated 50,000 heat-related excess deaths that occurred across Europe this summer were attributable to climate change, according to research from Imperial and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

According to recent polling, a majority (56%) of the UK public agree that 'It will cost too much not to tackle climate change now and we should be prioriting it while we can still avoid the worst impacts', with only 9% believing that 'it will cost too much to tackle climate change now'.

Last month, the UN Environment Agency reported that it was now impossible to stop global warming from passing the crucial 1.5ºC threshold and that 'urgent and stringent cuts to greenhouse emissions are needed to minimize the magnitude and duration of overshoot and return to 1.5°C by the end of the century'.

On Monday (9 November) the UN Secretary-General noted that: 'We have entered a new age of climate extremes. A supersized El Niño is colliding with a planet already superheated by manmade climate change. Climate records keep falling. The human costs keep rising. And those least responsible are suffering first and worst. Leaders must get serious by cutting emissions faster, accelerating a just transition from fossil fuels and delivering the finance and protection vulnerable countries need.'

Energise Sussex Coast director Kate Meakin said: 'If the UK government is serious about tackling both the climate and cost-of-living crises, then it must stop undermining the clean-tech industries – like heat pumps and EVs - that help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save people money. Likewise, it mustn't give approval to new climate-busting oil fields. That's why we're encouraging all East Sussex residents to contact their MPs during COP31 and urge them to take action to restore funding for heat pumps, maintain Electric Vehicle (EV) targets and reject the Rosebank oil field in the North Sea. They can find more details, including a template letter on our webpage: energisesussexcoast.co.uk.'

Energise Sussex Coast is a local non-profit community benefit society, founded in 2012. It's mission is to act co-operatively to tackle the climate crisis and energy injustice through community-owned renewable power and energy saving schemes across East sussex. It runs a free Energy Advice service to help local residents bring down the cost of their electricity, gas and water bills: 01424 390 062.

Its sister project, Energise South, has raised community-funding to install solar panels on eleven sites across East Sussex including six schools in Hastings & St Leonards and the community centres in Tilling Green and Pebsham. These installations saved these projects an estimated £62,000 in energy costs last year.