ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 197

When coal was overused, and has proved not eco-efficient, gas substituted it, and the local gas
resources were exploited, whereas now the UK imports most of its gas consumption. To highlight
the most important factors; the UK has a cold climate for most of the year, with heating being
the main energy requirement of most buildings. Sunny months are not sufficient to provide solar
energy; hence its applications are quite minimal. However, in 2006, the UK had installed 12.5 MWp
of photovoltaic capacity; by 2011 this had increased to 750 MWp. While for wind power, it is one of
the best locations in Europe, the UK consisting of 5,276 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of over 10 GW. The UK is ranked as Europe’s third largest producer of wind power (GWEC 2014).
A substantial amount of the UK’s emissions come from buildings which are responsible for 44%
of CO2 emissions: 26 per cent of the UK’s emissions come from homes, 18% from non-residential buildings (Inside Housing 2014). At the Rio summit in 1992, several governments agreed to
sustainable development. However, the UK government was pioneer by setting out its national
strategy in 1994. “In 1999, the UK government then outlined how it proposed to deliver sustainable development in ‘A Better Quality of Life’. This set out a vision of simultaneously delivering
economic, social and environmental outcomes as measured by a series of headline indicators”
(HM Government 2005). Accordingly, being one of the pioneers in this field, and a leading country
in the field of science, architecture, and urban planning, a history of success and world records; it
is important for the study to analyse and discuss the country and its current standing in terms of
past and current environmental practices, and the impact on its local and global future sustainability.
This paper presents the environmental issues that the UK has faced, with a look from the environmental perspective. The major issues are about energy, waste disposal, water scarcity, climate
change, and challenge of implying sustainable codes on buildings.

Discussion and Analysis
The Built Environment and Associated Emissions
After the global warming crisis occurred, attention was given to CO2 emissions and the serious
need to cut them down to stabilize the world’s climate. This procedure does not come at a cheap
price, but measures have to be taken. The latest estimates from the Tyndall Centre (Bows et al.
2006) are that a reduction of 70% from the current levels of emissions is needed to stabilise the
temperature at 0.58C above the present level. The built environment accounts for a large proportion of emissions, and within that sector housing in 2004 accounted for about 27% of the UK’s total
CO2 emissions of 152.5 MtC (DEFRA 2006). The main energy use at an average UK home in such a
cold climate is heating: space heating, and water heating. While any action to improve buildings
should be applied on both new build or existing housing, but implementing standards for new
buildings is a more realistic approach, and the UK government has enforced some.
The UK government justifies this focus on new build by asserting that making every possible
cost-effective energy improvement to existing homes would reduce the annual CO2 emissions in
2050 by only 25% of what is necessary: the rest must be achieved in new homes (DCLG 2006a). According to a report by the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) (2010); “The amount
of CO2 emissions that construction can influence is significant, accounting for almost 47% of total
CO2 emissions of the UK. In-use building emissions accounts for the largest proportion, over 80%,
of total CO2 emissions that construction can influence. Manufacture (of construction products
and materials) accounts for the largest amount of emissions within the process of construction”
(Fig.3).

A closer look at sustainability practices: lessons from the UK

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