Notice

Public sector emissions monitoring and reporting guidance: timeline

Published 29 August 2023

The government aims to reduce direct greenhouse gas emissions from public sector buildings by 75% by 2037 against a 2017 baseline. To help public sector organisations achieve this, the government has committed to produce guidance on emissions monitoring and reporting for the sector. This is intended to ensure these organisations have the right information and incentives to identify decarbonisation opportunities and better manage their energy and emissions. This notice provides an update on the next steps to deliver this commitment.

The emissions monitoring and reporting guidance will be developed through 3 key stages.

1. Conduct research and develop the policy: as emissions reporting can be approached in different ways for different purposes, research will enable the department to map systematically the different reporting approaches available and identify what decarbonisation outcomes they can achieve. The research outputs will be leveraged to develop and root the policy within a theoretical framework, to ensure it provides value and is proportionate.

2. Consultation: the department commits to consult on this policy, to ensure stakeholders within the public sector and external experts can provide views to shape the policy, which will help maximise its impact and deliverability.

3. Develop and publish guidance: Following the research, policy development and consultation, the finalised policy will be transformed into practical guidance for the public sector. The department will continue to engage and support the sector on uptake post-publication.

The department expects that undertaking this robust policymaking process will enable the publication of guidance in 2025.

This guidance will be for public sector organisations in England and will also cover sites managed by central government across the UK (Ministry of Defence sites for example).

As part of the policymaking process, the department will also give due regard to other existing or planned emissions reporting policies and the evolving wider landscape of emissions reporting initiatives.

Currently government departments and their arm’s-length bodies monitor and report on their direct and overall emissions against emissions reduction targets through Defra’s Greening Government Commitments (GGC). The current GGC framework is in place for the period 2021 to 2025. Under the GGC, government collectively reduced its emissions from its estate by 50% in 2019 to 2020, compared to the baseline year of 2009 to 2010.

The government has committed to a phased implementation in central government of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations - extending to 2025 to 2026. In July 2023, HM Treasury published the application guidance for Phase 1 of TCFD implementation in 2023-24. This guidance is also available for use by other parts of the public sector, including local government and devolved authorities, although HM Treasury does not have the responsibility for setting reporting requirements for these other bodies. As part of the Metrics and Targets theme, TCFD has recommendations on emissions reporting (these recommendations will be covered in Phase 2 of the implementation period).

The department will continue to work closely with Defra and HM Treasury to harness synergies, ensure alignment and consider consolidation, where appropriate, to deliver coherent and consistent emissions monitoring and reporting policy for the public sector.

This work on emissions monitoring and reporting guidance will build on existing support to enable the public sector to achieve its decarbonisation goals. The government is already:

• providing grant funding for heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures in public buildings through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS). £2.5 billion has already been made available through the PSDS for the Financial Years 2020-2021 to 2024-2025.
• supporting capacity and capability in the sector, including through the Public Sector Low Carbon Skills Fund (LCSF) and commissioning the Energy Systems Catapult to produce Public Sector Decarbonisation Guidance. The LCSF has also made £78 million of grant funding available to public sector organisations since 2020 to secure the specialist support needed to design and deliver heat decarbonisation projects on their estates.

We will update this page with the relevant public sector emissions monitoring and reporting outputs as work progresses.