Energy prices should rise tenfold to encourage greater energy efficiency, says Lucy Pedler, director of the Green Register

A drastic increase in prices is the only way to force businesses and the public into action, said Pedler, founder of the architect Archipelico.

She was responding to a Royal Society study which said that consumers would have to pay more for energy to finance the technologies needed to tackle climate change.

John Shepherd, climate scientist at Southampton University and co-author of the report, said: “We have adapted to an energy price that is unrealistically low if we’re going to try to preserve the environment.”

Pedler admitted that concessions would have to be made for low-income households, but said: “The problem is that there’s no one thing that’s crystallising the issue of energy efficiency. If we were to increase energy prices dramatically, you would definitely see a change in the approach to energy consumption.”

The Green Register is a nationwide network of construction professionals committed to promoting sustainable building.

Source

Building Sustainable Design

Postscript

Look out for an interview with Lucy Pedler in the September issue of BSD.