National Highways’ official monitor has challenged the company over concerns that it may have inappropriately discounted ‘renewable tariff’ electricity in reporting its corporate carbon emissions, Highways can reveal.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has said it is satisfied that the government-owned company is now reporting its emissions correctly.
National Highways' 2021 ‘net zero highways’ plan includes a target to reduce its emissions from its own operations to zero by 2030 and sets out anticipated reductions against a 2020 baseline including a cut of 51% resulting from ‘certified renewable electricity, including grid decarbonisation’.
The company also has a KPI target under the current Road Investment Strategy to cut carbon emissions by 75% against a 2017-18 baseline by 2025.
Between the two targets, both the activities that contribute to the corporate emissions total and the treatment of purchased electricity are treated differently.
The ORR has confirmed that, for the purpose of the KPI target, the company is not permitted to discount electricity from a renewable energy tariff and both the ORR and National Highways have said the company does not do this.
However, last summer National Highways published a one-year progress report on the net zero plan, which reported that emissions from electricity had fallen from 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in its 2020 baseline to zero in 2021-22.
It stated: ‘Corporate emissions have fallen from 82,150 tCO2e in our baseline to 26,300 tCO2e during 2021-22. The main change is because we now buy all our electricity from renewable sources backed by a certified Energy Attribute Certificate.’
An ORR spokesperson told Highways that following publication of this report, it ‘challenged National Highways on the use of renewable tariffs’ in relation to the data reported against its corporate carbon emissions KPI.
The spokesperson added: ‘As a result, we are confident that the company’s KPI reporting is based on electricity grid carbon emissions, does not deduct emissions due to renewable tariffs, and is in line with the appropriate emissions reporting guidance.’
National Highways told Highways that it purchases certified renewable tariff for 100% electricity that it uses through an arrangement that provides it with assurances that the electricity purchased is from renewable generation.
It added that for the purpose of its net zero plan publications, it reports emissions from purchased electricity in line with the Science Based Targets’ SBTi Criteria and Recommendations, which allows it to use a ‘market-based’ approach and therefore discount emissions from ‘renewable tariff’ electricity.
