The Welsh Government have released the second version Net Zero Reporting Guide, to outline the principles and priorities for the Welsh Public Sector Net Zero Carbon reporting, along with the data that public sector bodies in Wales need to gather so that they can meet the reporting requirements.
This second version follows on from the original 2021 guide, thanks to feedback after the first round of reporting and it aims to meet three main outcomes. Understanding the “current quantity of organisational emissions” is, arguably, the most important part as this is essentially what the reporting of emissions is all about, however assessing how to mitigate carbon emissions and identifying the main sources of them goes hand in hand with this. The final aim of the guide, is to monitor the progress being made, allowing the Welsh Government and certain organisations in the public sector to assess whether the goal of achieving a net zero carbon public sector by 2030 will be met.
The guide also features 13 principles:
- Transparency
- Good decision-making
- Consistency
- Partnership working
- Usefulness of data
- Local Economic Growth
- Comparability
- Completeness
- Proportionate reporting burden
- Improvement over time
- Accuracy
- Maintenance and extension of ambition
- Peer review
The 68-page guide goes into great detail about each of the above, as well as any information that public sector organisations might need to prepare themselves to effectively report carbon emissions, as well why it is important.
Developed by the Welsh Government alongside their partners in the public sector, the guide aims to develop a universal set of instructions to “estimate baseline emissions, identify priority sources and to monitor progress towards meeting the collective ambition of a carbon neutral public sector by 2030.”
