Estimates Day debate: The Spending of the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on action on climate change and decarbonisation

On Tuesday 5 July MPs will debate Government spending on climate change and decarbonisation as part of the Estimates Day debate. 

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has a wide remit and is responsible for:

• business
• industrial strategy
• science, research and innovation
• energy and clean growth
• climate change

The department works with 42 agencies and public bodies.

One of the Department’s objectives is to reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, while supporting green jobs and mobilising investment to deliver a green industrial revolution across the UK. Excluding the Cost-of-Living measures, 20% of the Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) budget in 2022-23 is allocated exclusively for these aims.

This is a 4-percentage point increase compared to 2021-22, when 16% of the total DEL budget (excluding the £5.6 billion one-off deposit to the Nuclear Liabilities Fund) was exclusively for this objective.

The BEIS Estimates memorandum (PDF) published alongside the Main Estimate 2022-23, contains a detailed breakdown of the department’s spending. This includes information on spending controls and key drivers of spending changes since last year.

Chapter 2, section 5 of the Climate Change Committee’s 2022 Progress Report to Parliament, published on 28 June 2022, provides an assessment of Government’s policies and plans, for achieving net zero including and an assessment of their delivery and implementation.