Department for Education: Carbon Emissions

(asked on 11th March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has published a plan setting out the steps it plans to take to transition to net zero emissions.


Answered by
Michelle Donelan Portrait
Michelle Donelan
Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
This question was answered on 21st March 2022

The department is currently preparing a sustainability and climate change strategy for the education and children’s services systems. A draft of this strategy was shared at COP26 for wider engagement across the sectors, prior to the planned publication of the final version in April 2022. More information, including the draft strategy document, is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/education-secretary-puts-climate-change-at-the-heart-of-education--2.

The department’s sustainability and climate change strategy for the education and children’s services systems centres on four strategic aims:

  • Excellence in education and skills for a changing world.
  • Net Zero.
  • Resilience to climate change.
  • A better environment for future generations.

Each outcome will cover each of our sectors (early years, schools, further education, higher education, children’s social care), as well as the organisation itself, and its Arm’s Length Bodies.

Proposals on transitioning to Net Zero are set out in Action Area 3 on Education Estates. Regarding the department’s own operations, proposals are set out in Action Area 4 on Operations and Supply Chains. The department is committed to reducing emissions and energy consumption wherever possible, as part of the UK’s transition to net zero. The department’s current targets to make progress on reducing emissions have been published, as part of the Greening Government Commitments.

The government also published the Net Zero Strategy in October 2021, which sets out policies and proposals for decarbonising all sectors of the UK economy to meet our net zero target by 2050.

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