Government's climate change watchdog has one of least energy efficient buildings

The offices of the Government's newly formed panel on climate change are one of the least energy efficient of all Whitehall departments.

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent Last Updated: 8:20PM GMT 14 Jan 2009

The Committee on Climate Change was set up last year to advise Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, and his cabinet on the best ways to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
But an energy performance certificate proudly displayed in the foyer of the Department of Energy and Climate Change at Number 3, Whitehall Place, where the committee is based, reveals the building has the lowest possible energy score.
Energy performance certificates assess a building's fuel consumption as an operational rating on a sliding scale from A to G. All 18,0000 public buildings in the UK are being audited as part of a Government drive to improve efficiency and are required to display their rating to comply with European Union legislation.
Andrew Warren, director the Association for the Conservation of Energy (ACE), said the certificate for DECC is shown in the public foyer. Of the 9,000 buildings audited so far one in six received the lowest rating.
He said: "For years, ministers have promised to ensure that all buildings under central government control are within the top quartile of energy performance. At present, qualifying could mean getting as low a rating as a C. Yet the building that houses the Committee on Climate Change has one of the very worst of the G ratings so far recorded.
"As the voice of our collective ecological conscience, it should be in an exemplar building."
The Conservative's shadow environment secretary, Peter Ainsworth MP, added: "It's no good the government telling the public what to do, or wringing its hands about climate change, if it cannot lead by example.
"The brutal truth is that most government departments are failing to live up to the standards they have set themselves."
The Office of Government Commerce, which has responsibility for the energy performance of public buildings, has set up a centre of expertise to help the public sector improve energy efficiency and meet government targets.