Climate change

The Government's Climate Change Bill is due to become law this year.

The Bill proposes to create two statutory targets to reduce CO2 emissions:

• Against a 1990 baseline, the Bill aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 26-32% by 2020.
• In the longer term, the Bill sets a target of reducing CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050, this may be increased to an 80% reduction.

To achieve the targets detailed above, the Bill proposes the introduction of carbon budgeting. Carbon budgeting is defined by the Government as 'a limit on the total quantity of CO2 emissions over a specified period of time'. The Bill suggests the introduction of five-year carbon budgets, beginning with the period 2008-2012.

The NHS Confederation has produced a summary of the draft Bill. In 2007, the NHS Confederation published Taking the temperature: Towards an NHS response to global warming and we held fringe events with the LGA about climate change at the party conferences. We conducted a member survey on climate change in January 2008 and are building our work programme on the views sent in. For more information please contact rachel.maybank@nhsconfed.org

Saving Carbon, Improving Health: A Carbon Reduction Strategy for the NHS in England

The NHS Confederation has responded to the NHS Sustainable Development Unit's consultation. Climate change is now recognised as one of the most significant challenges facing the world. As one of the largest organisations in Europe, with 1 million patient contacts every 36 hours, the NHS can make a significant contribution to the UK's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Taking the long term view

The Department of Health has published its sustainable development strategy for 2008-11. A number of priorities are outlined in the report, including those found below:

• The Department will examine how an emphasis on sustainable development should impact upon its policy making processes
• The work of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit to reduce carbon emissions across the service will be supported by the DH
• Key policies and contracts, in particular those subject to renewal within the next year, will be examined to ensure sustainability is an integral requirement
• Action will be taken to improve the energy efficiency of IT systems
• Corporate communications will be targeted in order to heighten awareness of the sustainability agenda across the DH.

There are a range of cross-government targets that the Department is expected to achieve including:

• Reduce carbon emissions from offices by 30% by 2020, in comparison to 1999/2000 levels
• Improve energy efficiency per square metre by 30% by 2020, in comparison to 1999/2000 levels
• Recycling of waste should increase by 75% by 2020.