Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to account for the embodied carbon of existing buildings; and the (1) climate, (2) wider environmental, and (3) public health, costs of their demolition.

On 1st June 2021, a coalition of governments and organizations, led by the United Kingdom (UK) and India, launched the new Industrial Deep Decarbonisation Initiative (IDDI). The IDDI will work on the harmonisation of embodied emissions reporting, public construction practices and standard setting.

At COP26, the IDDI launched three working groups on embodied carbon data collection, standards and green public procurement. These working groups will deliver guidelines, comparison mechanisms and digital tool solutions agreed among member governments no later than 2024.

The methodology for the construction stage, in-use and end of life embodied carbon emissions is the subject of the cross Whitehall working group on Government Construction Metrics run by the IPA. This working group is aiming to propose a consistent whole life carbon assessment (WLCA) for public projects by 2023. Many infrastructure projects already use the PAS2080 standard when assessing the carbon impact of these projects.