Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 2 October 2019 to Question 290335 and to the Answer of 1 October 2019 to Question 290324, if he will introduce the same policy as the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and switch to an electricity provider that supplies electricity solely from renewable resources within the next 12 months; and for what reason his Department has not already ensured its electricity is supplied solely from renewable resources.

The electricity used by the FCO across its UK estate is procured using the Crown Commercial Service (CCS). CCS is an executive agency and trading fund of the Cabinet Office of the British Government.

Through their competitively tendered Energy related commercial agreements, CCS ensure all legislation is adhered to including the environmental standards of suppliers. CCS is not able to dictate the sources of power to be supplied to the government departments as this is internal policy driven. The FCO is currently receiving electricity from the standard UK supply mix, however they have the option to access renewable energy from a variety of alternative routes, taking into account the additional financial commitment.

The current CCS framework under which the FCO procures its electricity expires in 2023. Under the CCS framework, the electricity is supplied by EDF. The electricity supplied is not solely from renewable resources. The CCS Framework does provide the ability to have electricity solely from renewable resources. The FCO is investigating this option.

The FCO actively seeks to manage its energy consumption as demonstrated by having reduced carbon emissions associated with its UK energy consumption from 9,485 tCO2e in 2017/18 to 7,357 tCO2e in 2018/19, a reduction of 22.44%.