The UK has the oldest and among the least energy efficient housing stock in Europe. This is particularly the case in Lambeth, where most of the housing stock dates back to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Within Lambeth, domestic energy use is the largest sole source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
To help plan for climate action to become carbon neutral by 2030, in 2020 the council produced a Carbon Emissions Report 2019-2020 (PDF 3MB) on the level and source of carbon emissions in Lambeth at that time.
Carbon emissions from buildings come from:
- heating buildings (particularly through gas boilers)
- powering buildings (through electricity made by burning fossil fuels)
- poorly insulated and leaky buildings (which require more energy to heat and power).
In March 2022, the council published a borough-wide Climate Action Plan (CAP), which sets out measures to reduce carbon emissions, including by making homes more energy efficient and powering them through renewable energy. Such works are known as retrofit measures.
The council's heat decarbonisation study identifies measures that can be taken across a wide range of building types to decarbonise heating, and the costs and benefits of such measures. It explores all feasible options from improved energy efficiency and insulation to renewable and low carbon technologies like heat pumps.