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Air Travel Emissions

Volume 455: debated on Thursday 18 January 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what his estimate is of annual departmental emissions from air travel, broken down by Department. (115099)

The table shows estimated annual emissions of carbon dioxide from air travel attributable to Government Departments. These are estimates based on air travel spending and/or distance travelled, collected for the purpose of calculating payments into the Government Carbon Offsetting Fund1. Some departmental figures include air travel emissions attributable to associated agencies. When applied to the Government Carbon Offsetting Fund, departmental figures will be multiplied by two to take into account the additional impact of emissions at altitude.

1 The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for Culture, Media and Sport operate their own offsetting schemes.

Department

Tonnes of carbon dioxide per year

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

14,243

Department for International Development

8,676

Ministry of Defence

7,583

HM Revenue and Customs

4,155

Department for Trade and Industry

3,404

Home Office

2,362

Department of Work and Pensions (DWP)

1,997

Treasury

1,662

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

1,350

Department of Health

955

Cabinet Office

818

Department for Transport

520

Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

340

Office of National Statistics

190

Department for Education and Skills

148

Law Officers Department Crown Prosecution Service

228

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

151

Law Officers Department Serious Fraud Office

133

Department for Constitutional Affairs

139

Office of Government Commerce (OGC)

111

Export Credits Guarantee Department

128

Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science

80

Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers

30

Government Actuary’s Department

23

Debt Management Office

4

Total

49,430

Defra recognises some of the inherent difficulties in calculating carbon dioxide emissions from financial expenditure, and is actively seeking to improve carbon dioxide reporting mechanisms across Government.

The recent Pan-Government Travel Contract (led by the DWP, OGC and Defra) had sustainability as a stringent criterion. My Department, in partnership with our travel service provider, has developed carbon reporting based on business mileages, rather than financial expenditure. This has improved the reliability of data streams and enabled strategic analysis.

Through the work of the Defra-led Government Carbon Offsetting Fund Interdepartmental Group and the Civil Service Travel Group, Defra is promoting the use of the collaborative Pan-Government Travel Contract. We are also sharing best practice across the Government Estate.