Measuring and reporting public sector greenhouse gas emissions

d) BEIS, Defra and HM Treasury should rationalise emissions measurement and reporting guidance. The departments should agree a timeline for introducing its measurement and reporting framework that sets clear expectations for the public sector. Whenever possible, separate guidance documents should be consolidated. When this cannot be done, the departments should ensure that separate guidance is consistent and fully aligned with the government?s strategic decarbonisation targets.

a) The government should strengthen the coordination of work at the centre of government on the measurement and reporting of public sector emissions. Several government departments issue guidance for measuring and reporting emissions but these efforts lack coherence and clarity. As the sector begins to tackle the challenges of decarbonisation, the government should ensure that there are clear lines of responsibility and accountability for coordinating efforts to improve the measurement and reporting of emissions across the public sector.

b) BEIS should ensure that appropriate emissions data are reported from the whole public sector. Decarbonisation goals have been set for the entire public sector, but only central government is currently required to measure and report emissions under the GGC framework. BEIS should review the adequacy of current measurement and reporting practice beyond the current central government GGC boundary to ensure that appropriate data are being collated to demonstrate progress towards the decarbonisation goal.

c) BEIS, working with other departments, should ensure that the shorter-term GGC targets are sufficiently aligned with the longer-term decarbonisation goals. Taken together, the GGC targets set over the shorter-term, should reflect a clear and sufficient trajectory for the public sector to deliver on the longer-term decarbonisation goals.