The House of Commons defence committee has described the Ministry of Defence’s (MODs) carbon reduction targets as “insufficiently demanding”.
Detailed within the committee’s Defence and Climate Change report, it is said that although the MOD’s Greening Government Commitments could be met early, this is largely due to the decarbonisation of the national grid – not its own efforts.
Dr Stuart Parkinson, executive director at Scientists for Global Responsibility, suggested that the Defence’s overall emissions reduction target outlined in the Green Government Commitments, (30% by 2025) will actually be around 32% by 2025 mainly due to the decarbonisation of the national grid.
With this in mind, it is believed that the MOD could do significantly more to spearhead the decarbonisation of its operations and support the UK’s net zero journey. Because of this, the committee has called on the MOD to “ensure its targets are more demanding and accompanied by plans to achieve them” for the period of 2025-2030.
The committee also believes that a balance of investment opportunities should be set out to help accelerate the fitting of low-carbon energy sources to the defence estate in the UK and abroad. This would allow the MOD to achieve “estate net zero” by 2030.
Moreover, there is a need to improve transparency of carbon emissions to ensure that all emissions are measured. It is also argued by the committee that the MOD should look to adopt Science-Based Targets initiative-approved measures for Defence and major suppliers. These will help create accurate and achievable emissions reduction targets and spearhead the integration of low-carbon technologies.
One of the final points made in the committee report states that the MOD should appoint a dedicated climate change director who would be able to “fully focus on coordinating carbon reductions across the whole Defence”.
