Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has outlined Government's latest measures to help householders save money and energy as he welcomed 10:10 - a new campaign to cut carbon emissions by 10% in 2010. Around 90,000 homes in some of the poorest areas in the UK should see an average saving of 20% per year in their emissions through a new community based energy saving scheme which starts today. This amounts to financial savings of around £300 per year off fuel bills. In the past year, more than 1.2 million homes have received some form of insulation under the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target with enough professional loft insulation installed to stretch from London to Sydney and back. The number of households getting this help through energy companies has been increased, with Government recently increasing the target by 20%. Responding to the 10:10 campaign, the Department of Energy and Climate Change has confirmed that it is on course to cut its own emissions at its London headquarters by 10% by April 2010 and it will make further reductions through the rest of 2010 and beyond. DECC staff have been encouraged by Ed Miliband to join him in taking up the 10:10 pledge in their homes and lifestyles.

The British government has published its plan of how the UK will meet its target of cutting CO2 emissions by 34 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020. The plan includes pay-as-you-save home energy makeovers, helping homes produce their own clean energy and boosting electricity production from low carbon sources. The UK Low Carbon Transition Plan sets out how the UK will cut C02 emissions by more than a third from 1990 levels by 2020. A 21 per cent reduction has already been achieved, equal to cutting all the emissions from four cities the size of London. The ways in which the UK will further reduce CO2 emissions are set out in the following areas.

The power sector

Around 50 per cent of the yearly emissions cuts between now and 2020 will be achieved by making the energy mix more green. The government expects 40 per cent of the electricity used in 2020 to come from low carbon sources - 30 per cent from renewables, the rest from nuclear (including new build) and clean coal. New measures include:

* speeding up planning decisions on renewable and low carbon energy while protecting environmental and local concerns
* confirmation of the final shortlist of the schemes for the Severn Tidal Power feasibility study - three barrages and two lagoons
* approval for the UK's largest biomass power station on Teesside

"If the EU is to meet its CO2 reduction and renewables targets, improve security of supply and create real competition in the European power market, we need to extend our power grids and change the way we operate them," explained Arthouros Zervos, President of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) at the European Wind Energy Conference (EWEC) in Marseille today.

An extended grid with changed operating procedures is necessary to rejuvenate the EU's power system, and will help reduce its operational costs whether more wind is added or not. An upgraded grid would, however, also allow larger amounts of wind onto the system. As such, it would go a long way in helping the EU meet its 2020 targets, reduce CO2 emissions and ultimately make electricity more affordable for consumers.

"At current fuel prices, electricity production costs from a new wind farm, coal plant and gas station are more or less the same. If a truly interconnected European grid existed and power markets were effective, the uncertainty of volatile carbon and fuel prices would ensure that wind, which avoids these unknown quantities, would become the most cost-effective of the three," explained Zervos. "We need the power markets to work to ensure that future investors are fully exposed to fuel and carbon price risk."