Background to the report

The government has long-term legally binding obligations to achieve environmental improvements and respond to climate change. There is scientific consensus that without significant and sustained global action, climate change and nature loss will have severe consequences for people in the UK and around the world.

Jump to downloads

The government sees achieving its environment and climate change targets as part of its work to protect and increase wider public value. Successive governments have, for example, identified new markets for clean technologies as a source of economic and job opportunities. Building the UK’s resilience to climate change risks, such as the increased frequency of extreme weather events and changes to food supply, helps protect people’s health and avoids harm to the natural environment and damage to homes and infrastructure.

Meeting the government’s environment and climate targets is a significant challenge. Achieving them requires major, long-term transitions across the whole economy and society, delivered by multiple government departments and the private sector.

Scope of the report

In 2020, we carried out two broad reviews of how the government is organised to achieve net zero and its wider environmental goals, including its goal to adapt to a changing climate. Since then, we have examined many of the interventions that it has established to help meet these goals. This has covered individual projects and programmes, for example, on energy efficiency grants and tree-planting, as well as broader portfolios of government’s work such as those to decarbonise home heating or improve air quality.

This report draws out learning from past NAO reports to identify enablers that we see as important for tackling the challenges government faces in its environment and climate change work.

Concluding remarks

Achieving the government’s legislative climate change and environmental targets requires sustained and coherent action over successive parliaments, and substantial progress over the next five years. This means that the leadership role of the centre of government and lead departments – the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) – is critical.

Strong leadership will ensure that the government develops a coherent set of interventions that together succeed in putting the UK on track to achieve its overall targets. Strong leadership also creates the conditions for securing most value from the public and private investment involved.

The scale and complexity of improving the natural environment and responding to climate change means that the government’s approach to leadership on these issues needs continued focus and attention. Our work shows that this should include building its approach to culture, strategic direction and integration.

Downloads

Publication details

Latest insights