Published on Liberal Democrat Voice by The Voice |

The Liberal Democrats have set out ambitious plans to tackle the climate emergency by generating 80% of electricity from renewables by 2030 and insulating all low-income homes by 2025.

As one of the party’s key priorities in their ‘Plan for a Brighter Future’, the Liberal Democrats have committed to raising the energy efficiency standards for new homes alongside investing £15 billion over the next Parliament to retrofit 26 million homes. This would save the average household £550 a year on energy bills.

The party has also announced a Liberal Democrat government would prioritise accelerating the deployment of renewable power generation, including a new target of doubling solar and wind power by 2030.

Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for the Climate Emergency, said:

The climate crisis is doing irreversible damage to our planet. The Liberal Democrats are committed to Climate Action Now so we can protect our planet for future generations.

The Tories have banned on-shore wind, slashed support for solar power and cancelled the Green Deal. They are persistently hindering and delaying Climate Action delay. That is no better than Climate Change denial.

The Liberal Democrats are the only party who have a clear, ambitious plan to cut harmful emissions by 2030 and get to net zero by 2045. We would raise efficiency standards of every home and more than double the amount of electricity we generate from renewables.

Every vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for a Prime Minister that will deliver a bold green plan to build a brighter future.

Two highlights of the plan are;

Home Insulation

Liberal Democrats aim to upgrade every house in the UK by 2030 to Band B EPC rating, prioritising all fuel poor homes by 2025.

50% of UK homes are rated EPC Band D, upgrading those homes to Band B will save the average home £550 a year – people will save money if their EPC Band is lower (E, F, G). Source: English Housing Survey 2017 to 2018.

Liberal Democrats will use £3 billion capital spend a year on home insulation over the next parliament (£15 billion over 5 years) – this will be used to incentivise households to upgrade their homes and also to provide fully subsidised home upgrades to those in fuel poverty. This spending will also leverage an extra £4.3 billion from private sources.

Renewable energy

The Government currently projects that the renewable share of energy generation will rise to 59% in 2030. The Liberal Democrats’ target is to increase it to 80% by 2030.

By 2030 a Liberal Democrat government will have more than doubled the amount of wind power (both on-shore and off-shore) and solar power compared to 2018.

This means increasing from 21 Gigawatts of wind power capacity in 2018 to 53 Gigawatts by 2030 and solar increasing from 12 Gigawatts in 2018 to 30 Gigawatts by 2030.

Tidal power generated just 0.02 Gigawatts in 2018, but could generate up to 10% of predictable long-term power. Liberal Democrats will reserve specific pots of funding for contracts for tidal sources, to allow greater support to develop these new technologies.

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