Climate changes could push up household bills

But the tough new targets tackling climate change will cost British households up to £500 a year more in utility bills, or a rise of 25 per cent for the average family, pushing as many as 1.7 million people into fuel poverty. The report also priced the move to a ‘low carbon economy’ at 1 per cent of national GDP, or the equivalent of £500 a year per household by 2020. Sceptics have dismissed the targets as ‘wishful thinking’, as the UK has only managed to reduce carbon emissions by just 3.6 per cent since 1990, and there is doubt over other countries following the British lead.