A consultation into how best to cut carbon emissions from the UK's energy-leaking housing stock has been launched by the UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC).The results of the two-week online consultation will be presented to the government ahead of the publication of its Low Carbon Homes Strategy next spring.Industry members and stakeholders have been invited to put forward their views about how to make the existing housing stock more efficient in a bid to reach government targets of cutting carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 and the more ambitious target of 80 pet cent set by the Climate Change Committee.The government has already set a target for all new-build homes to be zero-carbon from 2016, but the inefficient housing stock also needs to be taken into account, according to various organisations.Paul King, chief executive of the UK-GBC said: "Many people have used the phrase 'elephant in the room' to describe the challenge of cutting carbon emissions from the existing housing stock. But acknowledging the problem is not enough - we urgently need to deal with it."Escalating energy bills make it clear that tackling climate change by reducing our energy use can be good for our pocket as well as the planet. Not only that, but in a time of extreme economic difficulty for many businesses in the sector, a major push on retrofitting and refurbishment will open up new market opportunities worth literally billions of pounds."According to the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University the domestic sector accounts for 27 per cent of all UK carbon emissions.