Ten years ago, on this day, July 10th, 2015,
the Tories abolished the zero-carbon homes policy. It was part of their “Fixing the foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation” gag.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/10/uk-scraps-zero-carbon-home-target
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 401ppm. As of 2025, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was British housing stock is largely crap – poorly insulated etc etc. This was spotted as a problem for energy conservation in the 1970s (probably earlier), but actually doing anything about it is tremendously difficult – so many stakeholders, so much ick about having strangers in your house etc.
The specific context was a relatively sensible Labour policy had been that all new houses would need to be super-energy efficient. The big house-building companies etc didn’t like it, but had to bide their time. Then, with the implosion of the Liberal Democrat vote in the 2015 general election, the moment came. The Cameron government really began to “cut the green crap.”
What I think we can learn from this is that you can go to a posh school and emerge an ignorant sociopath. Who knew? Also, lobby groups can be patient.
What happened next is that crap energy standards for new housing remained the norm (in all neo-institutional theory senses of ‘norm’).
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
July 10, 1985 – French state commits terrorist act
July 10, 1996 – National Greenhouse Advisory Panel cops a serve
July 10, 2008 – first Australian #Climate Camp begins, near Newcastle