To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to enforce the incorporation of whole-life carbon into the costing of all public sector investment and spending decisions.
Answered on
20 February 2023
The Green Book sets out that all policies, programmes, and projects must be developed and assessed against how well they deliver on the Government’s policy objectives such as net zero. As with all policies His Majesty’s Government keeps this regularly under review.
In January 2023, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, published an updated Supplementary Guidance to the Green Book to reflect the latest evidence and the UK’s net zero target. Departments use these values in the Green Book to estimate a monetary value of the greenhouse gas impact of policy proposals during design and after delivery. Departments must also consider material impacts on climate resilience and natural capital where relevant, in line with supplementary guidance from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority also published the Construction Playbook to provide guidance on sourcing and contracting public works projects and programmes, including for assessing whole life carbon costs.