The Commission recommends that government needs to make progress towards zero carbon heat:
- Establishing the safety case for using hydrogen as a replacement for natural gas, followed by trialling hydrogen at community scale by 2021.
- Subject to the success of community trials, launching a trial to supply hydrogen to at least 10,000 homes by 2023, including hydrogen production with carbon capture and storage.
- By 2021, government should establish an up to date evidence base on the performance of heat pumps within the UK building stock and the scope for future reductions in the cost of installation.
- Set a target for the rate of installations of energy efficiency measures in the building stock of 21,000 measures a week by 2020, maintained at this level until a decision on future heat infrastructure is taken. Policies to deliver this should include:
- Allocating £3.8 billion between now and 2030 to deliver energy efficiency improvements in social housing.
- Government continuing to trial innovative approaches for driving energy efficiency within the owner occupier market.
- Government setting out, by the end of 2018, how regulations in the private rented sector will be tightened and enforced over time.
