Annex 2: Findings from the NAO report,
Energy consumption and carbon emissions in government departments
The NAO's review was published in November 2007. Based on data from 2005-06, it found that:
- Performance against the key target for reducing carbon emissions by 12.5% by 2010-11 is poor. Across the central government estate, emissions have fallen by 0.5% since 1999-00, but there is no clear downward trend, and this reduction is due mainly to the privatisation of the defence agency QinetiQ, which has thus removed the classification of its emissions from the public sector. Taking civil departments on their own, emissions have risen by 12%.
- Given current progress in reducing emissions, the target of achieving carbon neutrality for the Government estate by 2012 can only be achieved by extensive use of offsetting (i.e., purchasing carbon credits), and/or by treating bought-in renewable energy as carbon-free.
- The overall figures for energy consumption mask conflicting trends for fossil fuel use (heating) and electricity (lighting and IT). While gas consumption across the entire estate has declined by 9.5% since the baseline year, electricity consumption has increased by over 12%. This trend is particularly marked in civil departments where there has been an increase of 34% in electricity use due mainly to the growth in the use of IT-related equipment.
- In relation to energy efficiency, there has been a small improvement of 2% compared to the target of 15% by 2010-11. However, the performance of the MoD against this target cannot be assessed because of the absence of reliable baseline data. Moreover, there are very large variations both between and within civil departments over time. This measure is also difficult to interpret and does not reflect departmental performance in reducing carbon emissions.
- Civil departments are now purchasing large amounts of 'green' electricity, but no allowance is made for this in calculating carbon emissions. This is due to concerns about the carbon-free nature of green tariff s, and about the extent to which they contribute additional carbon reductions beyond those which would otherwise have been achieved by electricity suppliers. Allowing departments to claim credit for green electricity could therefore result in the double counting of emission reductions at a national level.
- There are large unexplained variations in data for some departments, and in some cases performance cannot be assessed against the 1999-2000 baseline due to the lack of reliable data and the impact of departmental restructurings. This limits the extent to which departmental performance can meaningfully be assessed and compared.
- Initiatives now in progress are likely to lead to a significant improvement in measuring and reporting.
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Source: National Audit Office, Energy consumption
and carbon emissions in government departments, November 2007,
pp 4-5, www.nao.org.uk/publications/select_committees.htm
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