Promoting household energy efficiency and a boiler replacement programme are the best ways to reduce building's contribution to climate change while boosting the economy, according to a new report.
Insulation, solar thermal water heating and other measures that make a home more energy efficient, and lower its electricity and fuel bills, were seen as a good investment in combating climate change and helping the economy recover.
The report by the Grantham Research Institute claimed that $400 billion needed to be spent on green measures to help the government recover.
Its assessment of methods of combating climate change took into account their long term social benefit, how quickly they could be deployed, whether they would create jobs and their use of under-utilised resources.
Both boosting the energy efficiency of homes and enacting a programme of boiler replacements received the highest scores in all but one of the categories.
Dr Sam Fankhauser, a co-author of the report and a member of the UK Committee on Climate Change, said: "We have systematically assessed various investments and policies that have been proposed to aid economic recovery and promote low-carbon growth. The most timely and targeted measures include those that promote smart energy-efficient public buildings and homes, and switching to cleaner types of transport."
Insulation is among the energy efficiency measures we recommend, along with draught proofing and double glazing.
But there are also other ways in which households can reduce their energy use, carbon emissions and energy bills.
For example, they could hang thick curtains in front of windows, always turn off appliances at the plug when they're not in use and use draught excluders under doors.
