RICS responds to climate change committee budget

"RICS is pleased that the UK's Climate Change Committee is focused on decarbonising the built environment and committed to supporting the transition from gas boilers to heat pumps for both residential and commercial properties. Reductions from existing residential and commercial buildings rely on heat pumps and energy efficiency measures like insulation. For these installations to reach their potential, we must uphold good installation standards through the greater inclusion of skilled professionals in government-backed installation programmes.

"Delivery must also be scaled up. The committee highlighted in its 2022 report to parliament that 500,000 retrofits are required in 2025 and approximately one million each following year to meet 2030 decarbonisation targets. A comprehensive retrofit scheme would prove vital towards achieving this goal, among many other recommendations in the RICS Decarbonising UK Real Estate report.

"Further to these latest developments, RICS calls on the UK Government to introduce legislation requiring the measurement and reporting of embodied carbon in line with RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment (WLCA) standard, as recommended by the Environmental Audit Committee. Setting targets is crucial, but accurately measuring progress lights the path towards reaching them."

RICS Head of Sustainability, Anil Sawhney