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PUBLIC SECTOR

Climate action that delivers public value

How can the public sector accelerate decarbonisation while delivering wider benefits for people, places and local economies?

Organisational decarbonisation

THE CHALLENGE:

Competing demands on stretched organisations

Turning strategy into delivery requires capacity that is hard to protect. THE SOLUTION:

Accelerating delivery with public sector experts

Practical support that builds internal capability, not dependency.

Place-based decarbonisation

THE CHALLENGE:

Navigating delivery across multiple stakeholders

Buildings, transport, energy and land use cut across too many departments. THE SOLUTION:

A whole systems approach to unlock coordinated action and investment at scale

A single cross sector view makes joined up delivery possible.

Making the case beyond carbon

Decarbonisation delivers more than carbon savings. The business case is strongest when it connects climate action to the wider outcomes that the public sector is already working to achieve. THE CHALLENGE:

Securing investment against competing priorities

Sustainability teams often need to make the case for decarbonisation alongside many other priorities competing for limited investment. If business cases focus only on carbon savings, they can miss the wider value that matters to decision makers, including lower operating costs, better health outcomes, stronger local economies and more resilient services.

THE SOLUTION:

Unlocking wider value and investment

Connecting climate action to the wider economic, social, health and resilience outcomes that public sector organisations are already accountable for, strengthening business cases and unlocking investment.

Public sector organisations are under increasing pressure to reduce emissions while responding to rising service demand, constrained budgets and changing priorities. Most have climate commitments in place. The challenge is translating those commitments into deliverable programmes that can compete for investment and build long term organisational capability.

Done well, decarbonisation is not a competing priority, it is a route to reducing operating costs, strengthening resilience and delivering wider social and economic outcomes.

While governance structures, funding mechanisms and policy frameworks vary between countries, public sector organisations around the world face many of the same challenges: reducing emissions, managing constrained budgets and delivering better outcomes for communities.

Public sector decarbonisation operates at two distinct but connected scales. Organisational decarbonisation, where public bodies such as NHS trusts, universities, local authorities, housing associations, police forces and central government departments work to reduce emissions from their own estates, operations and supply chains. Place-based decarbonisation, where local authorities and devolved bodies take on the broader challenge of coordinating action across entire cities, counties and regions, spanning buildings, transport, energy systems and land use. The latter can often be harder to deliver because responsibility sits across many organisations, while powers, funding and decision making are rarely aligned in one place.

Closing the gap between ambition and practical action means moving beyond high level strategies to practical implementation focused support: evidence based roadmaps, investable project pipelines and delivery models that build lasting internal capability.

In numbers:

"No single organisation can deliver decarbonisation alone. Progress happens when public bodies, businesses, investors and communities work together around a shared vision."

David Reilly, Director, Cities and Regions The Carbon Trust

ORGANISATIONAL DECARBONISATION

THE CHALLENGE:

Competing demands on stretched organisations

Public sector organisations are managing decarbonisation alongside increasing service demand, constrained capital and revenue budgets, estate management pressures and evolving policy requirements. Across health, education, housing, policing, central government and local authorities, sustainability teams are often competing for attention, resource and investment against urgent operational priorities. This can make it difficult to protect the capacity needed to turn climate strategies into costed delivery plans, investable project pipelines and funded programmes.

Most public sector organisations have set decarbonisation targets. Many have developed climate strategies. But the step from strategy to delivery is where progress often slows. Turning commitments into funded, practical action requires the time, skills and coordination to prioritise interventions, secure internal approvals, navigate procurement and keep delivery moving alongside day-to-day service pressures.

At the same time, the scale of the task is significant. Emissions from the UK's public sector buildings alone account for an estimated 2% of UK territorial emissions.1 This may sound low, but the opportunity for the public sector to lead the way for Net Zero will have a national scale impact on emissions.

Furthermore, public bodies spend hundreds of billions each year on goods, services and construction,2 giving them enormous influence over supply chain emissions. These Scope 3 emissions typically represent 60-80% of a public body's carbon footprint.3 Despite this significant scale, supply chain decarbonisation remains one of the least developed areas of public sector climate action.

THE SOLUTION:

Accelerating delivery with public sector experts

'When planned and delivered effectively, decarbonisation can help reduce operating costs, improve resilience and support wider organisational objectives.'

Public sector organisations do not need to choose between decarbonisation and delivering high quality services. When planned and delivered effectively, decarbonisation can help reduce operating costs, improve resilience and support wider organisational objectives. The barriers associated with moving from strategy to delivery are often not technical; they are more often linked to capacity, competing priorities and the processes through which decisions are made and investment is secured.

Getting there requires practical support that fits how the public sector actually works: its procurement constraints, funding cycles and decision making processes. This includes:

Governance and decision making: Connecting Net Zero to the decisions that already get made, so that decarbonisation is embedded in how the organisation operates rather than managed as a separate obligation.
Estate wide implementation planning: Building delivery plans at scale across entire estates, prioritising investment where carbon, cost and community impact is greatest rather than defaulting to the easiest projects first.
Project pipeline development: Identifying and appraising initiatives that can be packaged into an investable pipeline, ready for government grants, public-private funding or innovative finance.
Business case development: Quantifying the full economic, social, health and environmental value of decarbonisation so that finance officers have what they need to say yes.
Procurement and supply chain: Embedding Net Zero criteria into purchasing decisions, tenders and supplier engagement, extending the reach of decarbonisation beyond a specific project or organisation.
Funding and finance: Identifying grants, loans, public-private mechanisms and innovative finance options and building the cases needed to access them.

Strong delivery capability is built over time, and external support is most valuable when it strengthens the skills, confidence and evidence base within the organisation. By supporting officers and leaders to use the tools, understand the financial case and apply the evidence in decision making, decarbonisation programmes can build momentum that lasts beyond any single project or external engagement.

"Most public sector organisations already have a climate action strategy. The challenge is turning ambition into a costed, prioritised and investable delivery plan that can be implemented in the real world."

David Powlesland, Associate Director The Carbon Trust

PLACE-BASED DECARBONISATION

THE CHALLENGE:

Navigating delivery across multiple stakeholders

Place-based decarbonisation is difficult because the systems that need to change are closely connected, but the powers, funding and delivery responsibilities are often split across different organisations. Decisions about buildings, transport, energy infrastructure and land use are usually made through separate planning, procurement and investment processes, even though they affect one another in practice. This can make it harder to sequence projects, align funding and build the shared commitment needed for delivery across a whole place.

Local and regional authorities often play the convening role, but they cannot deliver place-based decarbonisation alone. Similar approaches are emerging internationally, with cities and regions increasingly acting as convenors between government, infrastructure providers, investors, businesses and communities to accelerate low carbon investment and delivery. Progress depends on aligning the decisions of public bodies, infrastructure providers, businesses, investors and communities around common priorities. Without that coordination, strong local ambition can remain fragmented across individual projects, short term funding opportunities and separate organisational plans.

THE SOLUTION:

A whole systems approach to unlock coordinated action and investment at scale

'Locally led, place-based approaches to decarbonisation could reduce the cost of reaching Net Zero by £137 billion and deliver £381 billion in additional societal benefits compared to top down national delivery.'

Successful place-based decarbonisation requires more than a shared ambition. It depends on creating a common evidence base, aligning investment priorities and establishing the governance needed to coordinate action across multiple organisations and sectors. This is how local authorities and regional partners move from individual projects and funding bids towards coordinated programmes that can attract investment, deliver at scale and create lasting benefits across a place.

The most effective approaches bring together buildings, transport, energy and land use into a shared plan, enabling infrastructure, funding and delivery programmes to be coordinated rather than developed in isolation.

Research is clear on the value of getting this right. Locally led, place-based approaches to decarbonisation could reduce the cost of reaching Net Zero by £137 billion and deliver £381 billion in additional societal benefits compared to top down national delivery.4 Through our work with local authorities, combined authorities and regional partnerships, we have found that place-based programmes are strongest when the technical analysis is connected early to governance, funding and stakeholder engagement. That connection is what helps plans move from evidence on paper to decisions, investment and delivery across a whole place.

Successful programmes are built on a number of common foundations:

Place-based energy planning: Cross sector plans that map current and future demand across buildings, heat, power and transport, identifying infrastructure needs and sequencing investment so that each intervention reinforces the next.
Investable project pipeline development: Identifying and appraising projects across sectors so that the best opportunities can be packaged for public funding, private investment or blended finance, rather than each department pursuing its own small scale bids.
Governance and coordination design: Building the cross-departmental and cross-agency structures through which place-based delivery actually happens, including shared accountability, joined up data and the political alignment that keeps programmes moving through changes in leadership and budget cycles.
Stakeholder engagement and consensus building: Securing the political and public support that long term place-based programmes depend on, from elected members and senior officers through to community groups and delivery partners whose buy-in determines whether plans survive contact with reality.
Business case and funding support: Developing the evidence bases that demonstrate the full economic, social and environmental value of place-based approaches, and navigating the increasingly complex landscape of government grants, devolved funding and private finance available to local authorities.

When this works, the benefits are felt across the whole area: lower energy costs for households, local jobs in the retrofit and clean energy supply chain, cleaner air, healthier buildings and communities more resilient to the disruptions (extreme heat, flooding, energy price shocks) that are already arriving.

"National targets provide a shared direction of travel. Real progress happens locally, where decisions are made, projects are delivered and communities see the benefits."

Paul Wedgwood, Associate Director The Carbon Trust

MAKING THE CASE BEYOND CARBON

THE CHALLENGE:

Securing investment against competing priorities

Whether the priority is economic development, energy security, public health, resilience or affordability, climate action is increasingly being used as a mechanism to achieve broader public policy outcomes. Decarbonisation can support many of the outcomes public sector organisations are already trying to deliver: lower operating costs, better performing buildings, more resilient services, healthier communities and stronger local economies. For NHS trusts, universities, housing associations, police forces, central government departments and local authorities, these benefits can matter as much as the carbon savings.

The challenge is that these wider benefits are not always captured in the evidence used to make decisions. Savings, resilience benefits, health impacts and service improvements can sit outside traditional carbon assessments, making it harder to demonstrate how a project contributes to the priorities that leaders, boards and finance teams are accountable for.

This can make it harder to prioritise investment and demonstrate the full value of climate action. When the wider value is not visible, strong projects can struggle to compete for limited investment, even where they would reduce costs, improve estates, strengthen services or deliver long term public value. Many of the outcomes public sector organisations are already seeking to achieve could be supported through well designed decarbonisation programmes.

THE SOLUTION:

Unlocking wider value and investment

'When the full value of climate action is understood, decarbonisation stops competing for investment and starts strengthening the outcomes public sector organisations already exist to deliver.'

The strongest cases for decarbonisation go beyond carbon reduction alone. They demonstrate how climate action contributes to wider organisational priorities, helping decision makers understand the full value of different options.

This means quantifying and communicating the broader outcomes associated with decarbonisation. Building retrofit can reduce operating costs while improving comfort and estate performance. Fleet and travel initiatives can reduce emissions while improving air quality and lowering running costs. Place-based energy projects can strengthen resilience, support local economic activity and create wider social value.

By demonstrating these outcomes consistently, organisations can make more informed investment decisions, compare opportunities more effectively and build business cases that resonate with the people responsible for budgets, services and long term asset management.

This often includes:

Whole value business cases: Quantifying co-benefits alongside carbon savings, including reduced energy costs, fuel poverty alleviation, improved air quality, local job creation and social value. The goal is business cases that the people who control budgets can act on, not just the people who already believe in the argument.
Strategic stakeholder engagement: Connecting climate action to the outcomes that finance leaders, chief executives, elected members and board representatives are already accountable for, helping decision makers understand how decarbonisation contributes to wider organisational priorities.
Evidence based advocacy: Shifting the internal conversation from 'this is the right thing to do' to 'this delivers measurable value across our mandate'. The analysis and framing needed to do that is what gives sustainability teams traction with the people who control the budgets.
Monitoring, measurement and reporting: Establishing accurate baselines, tracking progress and generating credible evidence to support decision making, demonstrate impact and communicate outcomes.

When the full value of climate action is understood, decarbonisation stops competing for investment and starts strengthening the outcomes public sector organisations already exist to deliver.

"When decarbonisation is framed as a driver of lower operating costs, healthier buildings, local employment, reduced fuel poverty, and stronger community resilience, it stops competing with other priorities and starts enabling them."

Charlotte Norton, Associate Director The Carbon Trust

Decarbonisation can support many of the outcomes public sector organisations are already trying to deliver: lower operating costs, better performing buildings, more resilient services, healthier communities and stronger local economies.

Why the Carbon Trust?

The Carbon Trust has been a trusted partner to the public sector for 25 years. In the UK, we have worked with around 60% of public bodies, including over 70% of local authorities, 50% of NHS trusts and health boards, and 90% of universities. We have also supported cities, regions and governments across five continents, bringing practical experience of how decarbonisation is being delivered across different policy, funding and governance contexts.

Our experience spans organisational and place-based decarbonisation, from climate strategies and implementation plans to investable project pipelines, business cases, governance models and funding approaches. This combination of strategic and delivery experience enables us to bring proven approaches and global best practice while tailoring solutions to local priorities, governance arrangements and delivery realities.

Our approach is built around capability, not dependency. We combine hands on delivery with knowledge transfer at every stage, equipping officers and leaders with the skills, confidence and evidence base needed to sustain momentum independently long after a project has concluded.

This combination of strategic and delivery experience enables us to bring proven approaches and global best practice while tailoring solutions to local priorities, governance arrangements and delivery realities.