Britain tops energy efficiency rankings – as households turn off central heating

Warmer weather and factory closures fuel drop in carbon emissions

Britain’s recent drop in carbon emissions has been fuelled by factory closures and households switching off their central heating, a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said.
According to the IEA’s latest figures, the UK was recently placed top of the global league table for improvements in energy efficiency.
However, it pinned the UK’s achievements largely on a sharp reduction in British manufacturing and the impact of warmer weather.
The IEA said in its report that Britain posted a 9pc drop in energy demand from 2010 to 2019, even despite the economy growing by 19pc.
It also found that the UK’s use of oil fell from 151m tonnes in 2010 to 125m tonnes in 2023, while the UK’s use of gas fell by 17pc last year alone.
One key contributory factor, said the IEA, was that energy use in households and commercial buildings fell by 21pc and 15pc respectively in 2023.
It said this decline was related to the weather rather than efficiency improvements, as higher temperatures reduced the need for people to switch on their heating.
“As space heating is the main use of energy in the UK residential sector, this means a large part of the observed reduction in households was likely due to the weather rather than efficiency improvement measures,” the report said.
The decline in the UK’s energy-intensive industries is another factor. Back in 2010, these industries consumed the equivalent of 39m tonnes of oil, but by last year this had fallen to 20m tonnes, according to UK government data.
Some of this was down to the closure of coal-fired power stations and their replacement by renewables – bringing a genuine reduction in emissions and pollution.
The IEA said: “This effect is likely to have contributed over 50pc of the total primary energy intensity improvement alone” because burning coal was inherently inefficient due to heat losses.
However, the shutdowns of other heavy industries, such as steel, were also a key factor.
The consequent reduction in emissions from the loss of such industries has boosted the UK’s apparent progress towards net zero.
However, it has also led to a surge in imports as the UK now has to buy many products it once made itself from other countries.
Emissions generated abroad for UK imports are not included in the UK’s emissions data.
Research by the University of Leeds suggests that since 1990, the CO2 generated abroad to make products for the UK has risen from 200m tonnes to nearly 400m tonnes per year.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero was contacted for comment.