Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what targets her Department has set to help achieve the Government's commitments on net zero.

The department sets out its plans to set targets to meet net zero in ‘Sustainability and Climate Change: a strategy for the education and children’s services systems’, which was published in April 2022 and can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sustainability-and-climate-change-strategy/sustainability-and-climate-change-a-strategy-for-the-education-and-childrens-services-systems.

The department is on track to set science-based targets from 2025, ensuring the department plays its part in reducing public sector emissions by 50% by the end of Carbon Budget 5 in 2032 and by 75% by the end of Carbon Budget 6 in 2037, against a 2017 baseline.

To support the monitoring of targets, the department is developing a 2017 baseline for schools and maintained early years settings. The department has supported the publication of a standardised reporting framework for higher and further education, and the standardised reporting framework for nurseries and schools is due to be published this year.