One of the greatest challenges in tackling climate change is trying to convince each person that they can make a difference. The scale of the problem is vast, the politics are complex and resistance to change is powerful and entrenched.

But while it’s true that each of us as individuals has only a small impact, collectively our actions can make a big difference. And that is particularly true if we focus our efforts on the activities in our lives that are most damaging to the climate.

In the UK, one of the areas in which collective action could make a major difference to cutting climate pollution is how we heat our homes.

The UK’s 29 million or so residential properties account for over a fifth of the country’s carbon emissions, second only to the impact of business and transportation. And the single biggest polluter in our homes is hidden in plain sight: our boilers.

We are a nation addicted to gas. In Great Britain, 85% of homes are connected to the gas grid. The UK is one of the biggest markets for gas boilers in the world – more than a million boilers are sold in the country each year.

But while only 12% of people perceive their boiler as a major polluter, the truth is that they are a key driver of emissions. The greenhouse gasses emitted from the average UK gas boiler are equivalent to approximately 2.2 tonnes of CO2 per year. That’s roughly the same as taking seven flights between London and New York or eating 1,263 quarter-pounders made with British beef.

As the experience of other countries shows, gas guzzling boilers are not an inevitability. And with global gas prices skyrocketing, it’s time to shift UK homes away from gas reliance and towards more sustainable sources of energy.

Amongst the most promising green alternatives are heat pumps – devices that absorb heat from the outside air or from the ground and use electricity to distribute it around your home.

Heat pumps are already popular in many other countries. In France, over a quarter of a million air-to-water heat pumps were sold in 2021 alone – that’s roughly the number that the UK has in total. In Switzerland, more than 50% of all heating systems sold last year were heat pumps. Norway, with a population of around 5.4 million, has more than 1.4 million heat pumps.

But in the UK, uptake has fallen short. The convenience and familiarity of gas, coupled with the additional cost and hassle of switching to new heating systems – and relatively low awareness that they even exist – has held back market growth.

At Nesta, we’re working to make heat pumps more affordable and easier for people to get and use. We’re gathering data on the challenges people currently face and trying to understand the best strategies for bringing down the cost of buying and using a heat pump.

With partners, we’re working on solutions to help people find information more easily and exploring new ways to finance heat pump installations for those who are already able to pay.

Over time, we want to help bring the lifetime cost of heat pumps down so they’re accessible to people right across the income spectrum and in all types of housing. We’re also working with suppliers, installers and policymakers to help create the conditions for a widespread transition to heat pumps – such as ensuring there are enough skilled people to install them.

Changing how we heat our homes is one of the single most impactful things we can do as a country to cut pollution. We are in a climate emergency, but we already have all the tools we need to pull the planet back from the brink. Together, we can shift the dial on climate change and help create a more sustainable future.