Home energy bills could soar over the next few years as consumers help fund efforts to reduce the country's carbon emissions.
The UK is one of many countries to have agreed to cut carbon emissions by 34 per cent by 2020,based on 1990 levels.
Now,however,environmental campaigners are keen to see the country sign up to a new United Nations initiative,aimed at cutting emissions by as much as 42 per cent over the same period,prompting some experts to warn that ordinary consumers could be required to help make this happen.
Notably,according to the Energy Intensive Users Group,such a deal could see around£7.5 billion added to energy bills over the next seven years,spelling bad news for both smaller businesses and also individual households.
"Ultimately it is the taxpayer or consumer who ends up footing the bill and if you end up putting too much of that cost on industry Britain becomes uncompetitive,"the organisation's director Jeremy Nicholson said.
Indeed,even if the UK doesn't sign up to a more ambitious climate change target,energy bills are still expected to keep on rising over the next few years as the biggest utilities firms look to fund their transition to renewables technology.
Earlier this month,the consumer comparison website uSwitch reported that five of the so-called'big six'suppliers have put their prices up over recent weeks,meaning that the typical UK consumer can now expect to pay£7 a week more for their heating when compared with last winter.
In fact,according to the site's own research,such price hikes mean that nine in ten Britons are likely to'ration'their energy consumption over the coming weeks,despite the fact the UK is expected to be hit with some of the coldest temperatures seen for decades.
Given this,growing numbers of households are looking into simple but effective ways of cutting back on the amount of energy they use,with fitting insulation,wall cavities and LED lighting throughout the home proven ways of achieving this.
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