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Departmental Carbon Emissions

Volume 471: debated on Monday 4 February 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he has taken to reduce his Department's carbon dioxide emissions in 2008-09. (181846)

The MOD is determined to lead the way in reducing its carbon dioxide emissions. We have already made significant progress in this area by taking a range of actions including: improving building energy management and energy efficiency; working with the Carbon Trust to identify opportunities for energy efficiency improvements at the top 220 energy-consuming defence sites; making central funds available for estate emissions reduction projects and embedding pro-rata energy efficiency targets into service delivery agreements between the MOD Permanent Under-Secretary and the Department's management areas. We have also worked with our road vehicle fleet contractors to provide more energy-efficient vehicles and have offset emissions from business and ministerial flights.

Work in these areas will continue during 2008-09 and beyond. In addition, we will develop and implement a carbon neutrality strategy for the MOD office estate, increase our procurement of non-climate change levy electricity and use of on-site micro-renewable energy systems, and make staff more aware of the environmental impact of their travel through a new self-booking travel tool.