It seems that every other story in the news is about energy. Saving it, greening it, producing it, being able to afford it.

We got our final bill for the old house today. We spent £400 on gas in the four months from November to February. That’s a small fortune for a 3-bed terrace. We’re OK, as we can afford it, but I’m sure that once quarterly bills start filtering through to people at the end of the month, fuel poverty will make front-page news once more.

The Government launched a strategy this week – Warm Homes, Greener Homes – a Strategy for Household Energy Management. You’ll have seen some coverage on the news – one of the headline-grabbing initiatives concerns new loans which you’ll be able to take out to install green measures in your home. The clever bit (if you think this is a clever thing to do) is that the loan will stay with the house. The idea is that this makes it more attractive for people to install things like solar panels, given that the payback time for certain green measures is pretty long – by which time you may have moved out.

I’m about half way through reading the strategy, and there’s some interesting stuff in there. I like the emphasis on linking green measures to fuel poverty – there will be a greater emphasis on working with social housing providers, more carrot and stick to encourage private landlords to green their homes, and a stronger role for Local Authorities to develop local partnerships with energy companies and third sector organisations. There seems to be a recognition that, if you leave this to the energy companies, they’ll end up focusing on the easy things to do – like sending out unsolicited energy saving bulbs to people who already have three in the cupboard under the sink.

George Monbiot had an interesting piece in the Guardian this week, criticising, amongst other things, Feed-In-Tarrifs – which oblige energy companies to pay people for energy they produce at home. His argument, in brief, is that the environmental benefit that comes from installing solar panels and domestic wind turbines are minimal, compared to other measures that could be taken. He sees the tariff which early adopters will be paid – 44p per kwh for domestically produced solar energy – not as a smart incentive but as a regressive tax on the poor. Because who is going to access the subsidised loans to install solar panels? The middle classes, who will proudly host dinner parties which include a pre-canape tour of the cellar – to see the electricity meter turning backwards alongside the case of 1995 Lynch-Bages. Except it probably won’t be turning backwards, because it’ll be dark outside – and the oven will be on full-blast cooking the organic rib of beef.

I don’t read enough of Monbiot to know whether he’s just going off on one, (he’s certainly stimulated a few responses on the letters page), but I would certainly agree that there’s a danger that we end up doing things which make us feel like we’re making a difference, rather than focusing on measures which really make a difference. As far as I can tell, the jury is still out on the merits of domestic solar panels in countries that are a fair-bit north of the equator. But I know full well that deep down, I’d love to have them. And I know I’m not alone.

Our individual green fetishes could also be matched by the desire of politicians and policy makers to do something. I always quote Yes Minister, but it’s such a great line:

We must do something about [insert pressing social issue]. This is something. Let’s do this.

I welcome the Government doing stuff on this issue, and on first reading the Warm Homes Strategy looks good. But you could quite easily see how targets (x district heating systems by such and such a year) or incentives (cheap loans to get solar panels) could end up stimulating inappropriate responses to this issue. And there’ll be no shortage of green energy installers setting up in the next couple of years, ready to convince unsuspecting homeowners that a ground source heat pump is just what they need.

I’m setting up a social enterprise this month – more on that soon. One of the first markets we’re getting involved in is this one. We want to get involved to help to make sure that in Leeds and elsewhere efforts to tackle climate change achieve as much positive social impact as they can. So we want to work with people like energy companies, the council, landlords and social housing providers to make Leeds greener – and save people money. We’re looking for collaborators – so if you’re interested, please get in touch.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Business, Climate Change, Green issues, Social Justice, Social change, Social enterprise, Social entrepreneurs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.