To ask the Secretary of State for International Development when his Department began to measure its carbon emissions; what the volume of those emissions was in the last period for which figures are available; when his Department started to offset those emissions; what the cost is expected to be of offsetting his Department’s emissions; and if he will make a statement. (116394)

DFID began to measure carbon emissions from our UK buildings in 1999, vehicles in 2003 and air travel in 2004. The latest figures we have for carbon emissions are as follows:

DFID is committed to the new sustainable operations targets which include a commitment for a carbon neutral central Government office estate by 2012. All Government air travel has been captured under the Government Carbon Offsetting Scheme since April 2006.

DFID proposes to achieve carbon neutrality through a package of measures including renewable energy on site (we are currently working with the Carbon Trust to agree the best technology for our UK estate); implementing further energy saving measures into both buildings, and further upgrading of our award winning video-conferencing facilities to make further savings on air/rail travel. DFID will only offset unavoidable carbon emissions that result after all economically viable carbon savings have been made, so it is not currently possible to estimate what the cost of offsetting will be.