Background
Government has long-term statutory net zero and environmental targets. Achieving them requires major, long-term transitions across the whole economy and society, delivered by multiple government departments and the private sector over successive parliaments.
In 2020, we published two reports examining the government’s approach to achieving its net zero and wider environmental goals. The reports looked at government’s arrangements for achieving these goals and highlighted the main risks government should manage. Since then, we have published over 20 value-for-money reports examining different aspects of government’s work to achieve net zero and other environmental targets. These reports have focused on a range of topics, including:
- the delivery of specific schemes or projects (such as smart meter roll-out, tree planting schemes and consumer schemes)
- policy levers or approaches taken by government (such as support for innovation, environmental regulation, measuring and reporting public sector greenhouse gas emissions)
- delivery of overarching objectives (such as tackling local breaches of air quality or decarbonising the power sector)
- how government, an organisation or department manages the delivery of its environmental remit (for example, the Department for Education’s approach to sustainability)
Scope
In this report, we will apply our experience of auditing cross-government challenges and insights from our published works on net zero and environmental topics to identify recurring issues that government should consider.
We will consider the critical success factors that government needs to focus on to secure value for money as it delivers programmes of work to achieve its net zero and environmental targets.
NAO Team
Director: Katy Losse
Audit Manager: Helen Roberts