Buildings are the wallflowers of the climate change problem. While protesters storm airports and leader writers argue about nuclear power or windfarms, the places where we live, work and play are quietly responsible for more than half of all the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. To have any chance of meeting our commitment to reduce emissions by 80 per cent by the middle of the century we will need to bring this unglamorous sector into the limelight.

Much of the answer lies in low-tech, high-efficiency insulation. Although the government has imposed strict regulations on new-build, the biggest challenge will be to cut emissions from our existing, inefficient edifices. Retrofitting the UK’s entire building stock will require construction skills on an unprecedented scale.