VOICES | JULIE GODEFROY Walk the talk The government is proposing that the UK become zero carbon by 2050 so what is it doing to achieve this for its own estate and activities? F ollowing recommendations by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the UK government has legislated for the country to target netzero carbon emissions by 2050, amending the Climate Change Act, which previously required an 80% reduction. This will need significant effort in all sectors of the economy and society, and scrutiny of the governments plans by expert bodies and civil society. As a first step, the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has launched an inquiry into the governments plans for reducing its own carbon emissions to net zero. The EAC is interested in a broad range of measures that can be deployed to reach net zero emissions, covering: Climate change mitigation and adaptation Operational and embodied carbon, and water use Buildings, fleet, procurement, and behaviour-change measures Co-benefits for example, from creating healthier and greener places Collaboration with the devolved administrations. It is crucial that lessons are gathered, made public, and are easily accessible and widely disseminated CIBSE will submit a response to the inquiry. We very much support this initiative and have advocated regularly that government should lead by example. This would show commitment and give investors and industry confidence that a transition to zero carbon is here to stay. Because of the size of the public sector, this would also help significantly in building skills, capacity and commercial viability for application in other sectors. For example, we have repeatedly highlighted: The failure of Display Energy Certificates to drive better energy performance, as illustrated by the fact that many prominent government buildings are E-, F- or G-rated The opportunity to use refurbishment of the public sector estate to support development of the retrofit sector. DR JULIE GODEFROY is technical manager at CIBSE government, including interim targets and deadlines, procurement processes, monitoring and enforcement How lessons from public projects can be disseminated: should government use a dedicated platform or make use of existing ones and, if so, which one(s)? In addition, what level of information do you think is required and useful, while being manageable? What government is already doing towards achieving net-zero carbon for its estates, what works well, and what is insufficient or counterproductive. We would welcome examples of public sector projects with which you have been involved (anonymised, if necessary), to highlight where current policies and practices may not be delivering the desired energy and carbon performance How much flexibility should be provided through offsets, such as achieving carbon savings elsewhere and the use of green electricity tariffs. Examples of organisations having achieved, or being on their way to achieving, net-zero status and how this was defined and the measures used to achieve it. For details of the inquiry, see bit.ly/CJAug19JG1 The inquiry closes on 15 August. If you would like to contribute to the CIBSE response, please send your thoughts by 8 August to JGodefroy@cibse.org To read CIBSEs response to the recent consultation on how to better incorporate social value criteria The Environmental Audit Committee To maximise the benefits of public sector leadership, it is crucial that lessons are gathered and made public, and that they are easily accessible and widely disseminated. Advocating this will be an important part of our response, and to inform our submission to the inquiry, we are interested in views from CIBSE members on: What must be done to achieve a net-zero focussed 18 August 2019 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Aug19 pp18-19 Julie Godefroy.indd 18 19/07/2019 13:23