All new homes in England will have to be carbon neutral by 2016, under proposals announced by the Department for Communities and Local Government. The UK's 21 million homes are responsible for 27% of carbon emissions; the plan to neutralize those emissions, which is light on specifics at this point, includes tighter building and planning rules, and a star rating system that reveals a property's energy efficiency to potential home buyers. Conservation group WWF gave it a preliminary thumbs up; said WWF's director of campaigns, Paul King: "The code sends the right signal, loud and clear, for house builders to put zero carbon development at the top of their agenda." On the other side of the coin, the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), who published a report warning that key environmental targets were "undeliverable" unless households cut the amount of resources they consumed earlier this year, noted that existing properties also needed to be made more energy efficient if the UK will come close to its goals of reducing carbon emissions by 60% from 1990 levels by 2050, when at least 75% of current properties are still expected to be in use. We'll hope that the proposal becomes law so we can hear more about how this idea will transform from paper ideas to real world practice. via ::BBC