ukstokes.com

According to today's Metro, Tony Blair's method of reducing emissions and further pollution of the planet is to introduce new taxes. Specifically, these taxes will be against 'Chelsea tractors' and other petrol guzzling 4x4 vehicles. Why is more tax always the politicians answer to everything? And why is there no mention of where this extra money will be invested? Call me cynical but it just seems like another excuse for the government to rake in extra money from the wealthy. The problem is, these sorts of people are rich enough not to care and are not likely to start driving round in Nissan Micras to avoid paying these extra taxes.

I think what we need is some more radical action from our government, starting with legislation that forces businesses and individuals to use renewable energy. Building regulations that force new houses to use energy efficient boilers is a step in the right direction but does not go far enough. New builds should all use solar energy for hot water, and under floor heating which requires much lower temperatures to create the same ambient room temperatures. Although it has not been widely adopted, the use of solar energy for heating has already been proven in this country, even though we do not get a massive amount of sun compared to Southern Europe.

I do realise that the initial setup cost of solar heating is higher, but this cannot be used as an excuse as we need to start tackling this problem on a long term basis. The savings on a monthly basis for those living in these houses will be realised immediately, and the reduction in our consumption of the worlds combustible fuels would be noticeable in years to come.

My wife and I are due to move house soon into an older property, which according to the survey may need a plumbing overhaul in the near future. We have already started looking at the costs of using solar energy for our heating needs, and it looks like £4000 is a typical ballpark figure for the installation cost on a 3 bedroom house. The government will currently refund £400 of this cost to you after the work is done, providing your house also has certain other energy saving attributes (like double glazing, cavity wall insulation, etc). This does seem a bit expensive - we would have to live there for 8 years afterwards to regain the cost and start saving money, but if we do go down this route I will definitely feel proud to be doing our small bit towards saving the planet.

Technorati Tags: Environment, Solar Energy, Renewable Energy, Global Warming