Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 3
3
HM Treasury has not yet clarified how it will ensure net zero is given adequate...
Conclusion
HM Treasury has not yet clarified how it will ensure net zero is given adequate weight in the assessment of government policies and projects. Achieving net zero will be an all-encompassing challenge requiring all parts of government to contribute to reducing emissions. Therefore, government must build net zero into the structures and processes that govern departmental spending and prioritisation. For example, by assessing the carbon impact of new projects or programmes to consider their impact on achieving net zero. The Treasury’s Green Book guidance requires all policy, programme and project proposals to consider environment and climate impacts, including UK greenhouse gas emissions. The Treasury has recently reviewed this guidance and is now looking to place more emphasis on strategic objectives such as net zero in the assessment of proposals. But departments’ capability to assess climate impacts is varied, with the skills needed concentrated in the Department. The requirements as set out in the revised Green Book will have less impact than the Treasury intends, and ultimately programmes will not contribute to achieving net zero, if a lack of capability across departments means they are not put into practice. Recommendation: HM Treasury should, within two months, write to us outlining: • how it will ensure its guidance, such as the Green Book, will lead to departments adequately considering and reporting the impact of policy decisions on net zero; how all fiscal stimulus packages and infrastructure proposals will be stress tested against net zero and what measures will be incorporated into the Green Book to ensure projects are only approved if they align with 2050 net-zero target; and • how it will ensure the development of skills across Whitehall to assess the impact of decisions on net zero.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: May 2021 3.2 At Spending Review 2020, guidance required departments to include the greenhouse gas emissions of bids, and their impact on meeting carbon budgets and net zero. Guidance also sought qualitative commentary on the impact of delivery of the 25 Year Environment Plan. HM Treasury (HMT) is currently reviewing the learning from this exercise and these issues will remain at the forefront of HMT’s priorities for this year. Information on the 2021 Spending Review will be published in due course. 3.3 HMT uses spending reviews to set departments’ overall budgets. Departments then prioritise within these to make sure they have the skills and capacity to deliver their objectives, including net zero. HMT has provided funding to reflect the challenges of delivering additional net zero programmes and assessing the impact of policy decisions – for example, Spending Review 2020 set out that BEIS’s core resource budget would grow by 3.3 per cent in real terms in 2021-22 relative to 2019-20.