Government 'failing on carbon emissions targets'

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 13/07/2008

The Government is lagging far behind its own targets to cut carbon emissions, a Parliamentary environment watchdog announced.
Government departments and agencies have pledged to reduce their carbon emissions by 12.5 per cent in 2010-11, compared with levels in 1999-00, and to go carbon neutral in 2012.
But the Government had only reduced its emissions by 4 per cent by 2006-07, which was "very poor progress", according to the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC).
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The Committee was "extremely disappointed" with progress on generating electricity through renewable energy on Government property. Only 0.0004 per cent of all electricity consumed by the Government was generated by on-site renewables, such as wind, solar or biomass power plants, according to the National Audit Office.
The Government was also relying "too heavily" on buying offsets to make its estate carbon neutral rather than reducing its own emissions.
The select committee report - Making Government Operations More Sustainable: A Progress Report - draws on the annual review of Government performance by the Sustainable Development Commission.
The EAC said there was a "degree of confusion" within Government about how the targets would be met and these "essential issues" should be worked out urgently. Each year, central Government offices produce approximately 2.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions - around 0.4 per cent of the UK's total - and 309,000 tonnes of waste.
Committee chairman, Conservative MP Tim Yeo, said: "The degree of confusion within Government as to how to make its offices carbon neutral by 2012, how much this will cost, and even how it will be defined and what it will measure, is wholly unsatisfactory.
"The Government is to be congratulated for announcing a big shake-up to the way departments respond to their environmental targets. But now they've got to demonstrate significant year-on-year improvements.
"Until the Government shows that it is living up to its commitments it will find it hard to maintain the moral authority to influence the rest of us."
The EAC concluded that personal responsibility for sustainability issues must be increased at all levels. This would require "more training and incentives" beyond the senior civil service, the report said.
The Committee also expressed concern over the reliability of emission figures. Members criticised the Ministry of Defence for claiming a big cut in emissions after it sold the defence agency QinetiQ.
In reality, the EAC said, the Government was simply moving these emissions "off balance sheet" to the private sector.
An EAC spokesman said: "The Government has now stopped claiming this as a cut in emissions, but the Committee warns it not to make similar claims in the future."
Ministers should also put a cap on the use of offsets so that the use of on-site renewable energy was encouraged. The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) should annually publish details of the amount the Government expected to spend on offsetting emissions, the Committee said.