Smarter homes, clean energy vital for UK security

Speaking to the Royal Geographic Society, Chris Huhne, Britain’s secretary for energy and climate change, said the UK urgently needs to make its housing stock smarter and rapidly develop affordable, low-carbon electricity to ensure its energy security.

“A quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions come from the home,” he said. “Our housing stock – the oldest in Europe – is costing us the earth.”

Huhne also stressed the need to move quickly to develop renewable energy sources, new nuclear power without public subsidies and clean coal and gas technologies.

“We will lose a fifth of our generating capacity over the next 10 years, as our ageing power plants shut down,” he said. “We cannot afford to replace them with more of the same.”

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