House of Commons - Environmental Audit

Select Committee on Environmental Audit Seventh Report

Introduction

1. Greening Government operations is important in its own right, because of the size and range of their environmental impacts. Each year, for instance, central Government offices produce approximately 2.3 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions (around 0.4% of the UK total) and 309,000 tonnes of waste. Central Government spends £60 billion on goods and services each year,[1] and through sustainable procurement it could accelerate the take-up of environmentally friendly products. Even more important is the effect Government can have on society more widely by demonstrating leadership in the way it approaches its own record. This can have a motivational effect through giving Government enhanced moral authority and providing practical templates of action for other sectors of society to follow.

Past scrutiny of the Government's record

2. The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has been scrutinising Government performance in improving its own sustainability ever since its inception in 1997. This is the seventh inquiry that EAC has devoted to this specific topic, and through this work the Committee has been instrumental in the evolution of the Government's own target and monitoring regime.[2] For instance, it was EAC's annual survey of departments that formed the basis for the Government's data collection exercise for the now annual Sustainable Development in Government (SDiG) report. In our last report on this issue, published in November 2005, we expressed concern primarily about the:

poor progress by departments against their carbon reduction goals;
patchiness of data provided by departments, in terms both of what was reported and how accurate it was;
restricted scope of the SDiG targets and monitoring regime, in that it does not cover NHS bodies or schools; and
exclusive focus of the SDiG regime on the operations of Government, while not covering the sustainability impacts of Government policy.[3]

3. In particular, we were interested in an apparent contradiction in the Government data. While departments' use of green electricity was rising, so too were carbon emissions from Government buildings . As we observed, it was "difficult to reconcile the massive increase in the use of renewable energy with the large increases in carbon emissions reported by departments."[4]As a result, we recommended that the National Audit Office (NAO) investigate departmental data on energy use and carbon emissions. The NAO published its report in November 2007; its conclusions are summarised in the Appendix, and drawn on throughout this report.

The latest SDiG report by the Sustainable Development Commission

4. In 2002 the Government introduced a comprehensive range of targets for all departments, and introduced an annual report on Sustainable Development in Government (SDiG) to illustrate performance against them.[5] In 2006 it published a revised set of targets under the title Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate (SOGE).[6] At the same time, publication of the annual SDiG report was handed over to the independent Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), fulfilling a new public watchdog role to oversee Government performance.

5. In March 2008, the Sustainable Development Commission published the latest Sustainable Development in Government Annual Report, based on data from 2006-07, along with its own commentary on the Government's performance.[7] While the overall figures showed that annual carbon emissions from Government buildings had fallen by 4% over the period 1999-00 to 2006-07, this reduction was largely due to the performance of the Ministry of Defence (MoD); removing the MoD means that emissions from Government offices went up by some 22%. Even the progress recorded by the MoD was partly illusory, since it depended on simply removing the emissions of the defence agency QinetiQ following its privatisation. Overall, the SDC found that, while Government as a whole is generally performing better this year than last, many individual departments are not on track to meet all their targets; and that radical and urgent steps were needed to drive their performance forward.

6. For the first time, this year's SDC report received an official Government Response. This placed a strong emphasis on actions that the Government had already taken since the 2006-07 period reviewed by the report, and announced a significant array of new measures. Key amongst these was the announcement of a new Centre of Expertise for Sustainable Procurement; and the creation of a new post, the Government's Chief Sustainability Officer, "to take forward a culture of change across all departments in sustainable operations and procurement".[8]

Focus of this report

7. In this report we concentrate on three main areas. The first is carbon emissions and energy use from Government buildings, paying particular attention to departments' purchasing of "green electricity"—the issue which prompted us to ask the NAO to carry out its report. Secondly, we examine the effectiveness of the overall target and monitoring regime as it has been reformed since our last report, concentrating on the extent to which SOGE targets are being complied with, and the difference made by the SDC's role in the process. Last, we review the reforms announced in the recent Government Response, and make recommendations on how these ought to be implemented.

1 Sustainable Development Commission, Sustainable Development in Government 2007, March 2008, Table 2.7, paras 5.1-2, p 95. Back

2 Environmental Audit Committee, Second Report of 1997-98, The Greening Government Initiative, HC 517; Sixth Report of 1998-99, Greening Government 1999, HC 426; Fifth Report of 1999-2000, The Greening Government Initiative: First Annual Report from the Green Ministers Committee, HC 341; Thirteenth Report of Session 2002-03, Greening Government 2003, HC 961; Eighth Report of 2003-04, Greening Government 2004, HC 881; First Report of 2005-06, HC 698 Back

3 Environmental Audit Committee, Greening Government: the 2004 Sustainable Development in Government Report, pp 3-4 Back

4 Environmental Audit Committee, Greening Government: the 2004 Sustainable Development in Government Report, pp 3-4 Back

5 The Government's target and monitoring regime applies to the central Government Estate only: in practice this means offices of departments and agencies (including Whitehall headquarters as well as buildings throughout the country, such as JobCentre Plus offices), plus other buildings such as military bases in the UK, prisons, and courts. It does not include NHS bodies, local authorities, or schools. Back

6 A summary of the targets in the SOGE framework, and Government performance against them in 2006-07, is contained in Annex 1. Back

7 A summary of this commentary is contained in the Annex 3. Back

8 "New centre of expertise for cutting carbon emissions across Whitehall", Defra press release 82/08, 18 March 2008. Key points of the Government Response are summarised in Annex 4. Back