Wednesday, January 20, 2010, 15:02

Professor Doug King is the author of a report on low carbon housing published by the Royal Academy of Engineering.
He has coined the term “eco-bling” to describe gadgets such as turbines and solar panels, which homeowners buy as a way to make them feel more green, but in reality do very little to combat carbon emissions.
Instead, Professor King advises that homes should be built with better insulation and the extra money be spent on large scale renewable energy projects such as wind farms.
He said: “Wind turbines and solar cells on the roof achieve little or nothing and are what I describe as eco-bling.
“It’s just about trying to say to the general public, “I’m being good, I’m helping the environment”.
“The things that save the money are not done, because they are not sexy.”
The Government is aiming to reduce carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 and an important part of that is looking at the construction industry, because buildings currently account for almost half of the country’s emissions.
The report says it wants to see old buildings adapted to ensure they waste less energy and a study to determine how many workers will need to be trained so they can meet the demand for energy-efficient construction.
Professor King said more needed to be done to prepare the industry for designing low carbon buildings to meet Government targets.
He said: “The sheer pace of change in the regulation of building energy performance has already created problems for the construction industry and the proposed acceleration of this process, aiming to achieve zero-carbon new buildings by 2020, will only widen the gulf between ambitious Government policy and the industry’s ability to deliver.”