Critics claim the technology is best suited to newbuilds – but studies reveal success with retrofits and in poorly insulated homes

• Do heat pumps work at freezing temperatures?
• Are heat pumps more expensive to run than gas boilers?

The belief that heat pumps will work only in newbuild homes is still widely held.

The number of heat pumps installed every year across the EU is expected to surge by the end of the decade as governments take aim at household carbon emissions.

Researchers say world has enough fossil fuel projects planned to meet demand forecasts to 2050 if net zero is reached

The world has enough fossil fuel projects planned to meet global energy demand forecasts to 2050 and governments should stop issuing new oil, gas and coal licences, according to a large study aimed at political leaders.

If governments deliver the changes promised in order to keep the world from breaching its climate targets no new fossil fuel projects will be needed, researchers at University College London and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) said on Thursday.

Widening government-run scheme would counter mistrust among householders, says consumer group

The next government should force all tradespeople who install home heat pumps, solar panels and insulation to sign up to a mandatory accreditation scheme to counter mistrust in the industry, a leading consumer group is demanding.

A report from Which? found that households face “significant anxiety” in choosing tradespeople to fit low-carbon heating systems, such as heat pumps, and insulation after “press stories about poor work and rogue traders”.

Critics claim that the technology is not up to the job – we examine whether the facts bear this out

• Are heat pumps more expensive to run than gas boilers?

The belief that a heat pump is unable to warm a home in the depths of winter is widely held, especially in the UK.

One recent survey of more than 4,000 adults across the UK, Germany, France and the US last autumn found that 35% believed that air-source heat pumps are not up to the job.

Ministers are discussing who will build the plant, which will join Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C as major future suppliers to the grid

Ministers have earmarked north Wales as the site of a large-scale nuclear power plant, which is part of plans to resuscitate Britain’s nuclear power ambitions.

Wylfa on Anglesey (Ynys Môn) has been named as the preferred site for the UK’s third major nuclear power plant in a generation, coming after EDF’s Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, which is under construction in Somerset, and its Sizewell C nuclear project planned for Suffolk.