Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 1
1
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 69
There is no Government policy requiring the assessment or control of embodied carbon emissions from...
Conclusion
There is no Government policy requiring the assessment or control of embodied carbon emissions from buildings. As a result, no progress has been made in reducing these emissions within the built environment. This inaction remains despite the built environment making up 25 per cent of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions and the UK’s Nationally Determined Contribution, made at COP26, committing the UK to achieve a 68% reduction in the UK’s carbon emissions by 2030. This is only eight years away. This is an extremely short time frame within which to start assessing and substantially reducing embodied carbon emissions. The first step must be a requirement to undertake whole-life carbon assessments for buildings so the industry can start measuring and then controlling for this carbon.
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges the lack of policy and highlights existing decarbonisation strategies and the intention to explore a maximum embodied carbon level for new buildings.
Paragraph Reference:
69
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government is committed to meeting its target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and we recognise that embodied carbon can account for a significant proportion of a building’s whole life carbon emissions. As the Committee notes, reducing these embodied carbon emissions is a challenge across the built environment, not just in buildings. The Government is working with industry across built environment supply chains to ensure that progress is made on reducing these emissions. The Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy and the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, for example, have set out how large sectors of the economy will decarbonise. The England Trees Action Plan looks to increase production of timber, which can be used to replace higher carbon materials in construction when safe to do so. As these policies take effect and industries that supply construction decarbonise, the embodied carbon emissions of buildings will fall in turn. This alone, however, will not be enough. Our choice of materials, and the way we design and construct buildings will also need to change to reduce their embodied carbon. We agree with the Committee that whole life carbon assessments (WLCAs) are likely to have a significant role to play in delivering this change. WLCAs will help ensure that carbon is properly accounted for, encouraging the industry to use low carbon materials and to produce more efficient, low-carbon designs. This is why the Net Zero Strategy set out Government’s ambitions to help the construction sector improve their reporting on embodied carbon in buildings and confirmed that we will explore the potential of a maximum embodied carbon level for new buildings in the future.