9 Acknowledged

We asked what the Department was doing to ensure that it would be able to...

Conclusion
We asked what the Department was doing to ensure that it would be able to track progress towards net zero when responsibility was shared across departments. The Department told us that the new coordination structures provided it with clarity on total emissions and the level of emissions for which each department has responsibility. It asserted that this meant each department could be held to account for its area of responsibility while the Department was overall accountable for total emissions. It also explained that departments would be set an overall emissions ‘envelope’, which all emissions related to their policy decisions must come in under and that this envelope would fall over time. The Department acknowledged that it needed to enhance its reporting on the different net zero delivery programmes across government and told us that it had tasked a net zero governance team to work on this issue.14 The Treasury told us that the Department was working with the Climate Change Committee (CCC) to develop measures that could be used to track progress. It explained, however, that it would take ‘some time’ to develop this and make sure that it was designed and implemented in the right way, but that it hoped to improve the data and information available to make policy and spending decisions this year.15
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the underlying sentiment of tracking progress, referring to existing annual 'Energy and Emissions Projections' and committing to set out more detailed metrics for tracking progress in a comprehensive Net Zero Strategy.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government Acknowledged
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Winter 2021 2.2 The government already publishes the ‘Energy and Emissions Projections’ every year, which is a world-leading approach to projecting the UK’s annual emissions, by sector, according to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change guidelines. The department will continue to publish these annually. 2.3 The government’s 10 Point Plan also sets out a range of ambition metrics by sector. The department is planning a comprehensive Net Zero Strategy, covering all sectors, to set out the pathway to net zero by 2050 – and this will set out in more detail the metrics the department will track towards net zero. The government will need to continue to review and refine sectoral plans and contributions to net zero as technologies, as well as government policies, evolve.
Addressee Bodies
HM Treasury
Timeline
Recommendation age 5.4 yrs
Report published 05 Mar 2021