A National Warm Homes Plan -This builds on from the 2023 Warm Homes Campaign and now the attention is on the General Election. We focus our campaign on securing support and commitments from MPs, election candidates and political parties – to make sure that whoever is elected to the next government tackles fuel poverty, insulation of buildings and the transition towards renewable fuels.
Friends of the Earth’s response to a member question wood burning stoves.
One of our members wrote to Friends of the Earth to ask their opinion on wood burning stoves and to suggest that they might consider their use to be a campaign issue. We thank them for the comprehensive response copied below.
We’re not campaigning on woodburning stoves, and we don’t have a specific policy on this. But there are concerns about wood burners causing air pollution. Wood burning is one of the biggest sources of primary PM2.5s (this is particulate matter) – you can find more information in this Guardian article and this government data.
Emissions of particulate air pollution from wood-burning stoves are of concern and we suggest that people don’t buy wood burning stoves if they live in urban areas, or areas where World Health Organisation (WHO) standards are being exceeded. In rural areas,
burning wood from local, sustainable sources for heating homes would be less problematic from an air pollution point of view. The amount of pollution produced by log burners may vary enormously between models of stoves and burners. The Stove Industry
Alliance has information on the least polluting stoves and the cleanest fuel, and the government has a practical guide to open fires and wood burning stoves which you may find useful.
In terms of heating, we believe there are better eco-heating options, such as insulation and heat pumps – please see the information on our eco heating page – though it depends on the type of property you live in. Wood burners may have a role to play in hard-to-insulate rural properties where heat pumps are not viable.
I hope this helps. We’ve recently successfully challenged the government in the courts for urgent climate action, they now have to produce a credible plan to reduce our carbon emissions and meet our legal climate targets in line with the science. We’re
campaigning to stop new fossil fuel projects going ahead like the proposed new coal mine in Cumbria. And we’re also challenging the government’s National Adaptation Programme over its failure to protect frontline communities.
Thanks again for contacting us and good luck with all your local group campaigning.
Supporter Relations Team (Enquiries)
Tel: 020 7490 1555 (10-3.30, Mon-Fri)
Website: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/
