Notice

Public sector emissions monitoring and reporting guidance: timeline

Updated 8 July 2025

This government has renewed the UK’s commitment to lead by example with one of the Prime Minister’s five missions focussed on making Britain a clean energy superpower, by achieving clean power by 2030 and accelerating to net zero by 2050 across the economy. As part of this, the government aims to reduce direct greenhouse gas emissions from public sector buildings. 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. Conducting 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. Developing and publishing 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 by the end of 2026. This date has been extended by a year to allow sufficient time following consultation to develop guidance which considers the complexity of emissions reporting and the landscape of approaches.

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 (GGCs). The current  GGC  framework is in place for the period 2021 to 2025. Under the GGCs, government collectively reduced its direct emissions from its estate by 14.7% in 2023 to 2024, compared a 2017 to 2018 baseline.

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 December 2024, HM Treasury published the full TCFD-aligned disclosure Application Guidance. 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 (from 2024 to 2025), TCFD’s recommendations on emissions reporting require disclosure of Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and where deemed material Scope 3. Furthermore, the Strategy theme (from 2025 to 2026) requires reporting entities with climate as a principal risk or similar to assess their resilience to climate-related risks – including transition risks for 2050.

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.