£16.3 billion: the cost of net zero in UK schools

Today we’re launching our report on the costs of net zero in UK schools.

We want to see all schools in the UK urgently decarbonised, which will not only reduce their impact and save money in the long term, but will also allow education buildings to be practical teaching and learning resources of how the built environment needs to be adapted to respond to the climate crisis and ecological emergency. A huge thank you to our supporting organisation, Energise, for preparing this report for us.

Read the report here.

The analysis estimates that it will cost £16.3 billion for the primary and secondary estate in the UK to transition to net zero. We are calling for substantial investment for the retrofitting of existing educational buildings. Schools should be practical teaching and learning resources of how the built environment needs to be adapted to respond to the climate crisis and ecological emergency. You can see our specific national asks, covering this on our England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland policy pages.

Supporting this, the report outlines three clear calls to action for policy makers:

1. Develop a plan to phase implementation of decarbonisation plans, considering the national Net Zero Target date and the financial implications of meeting that target.
2. Develop a high level set of annual budgets that allocate funding for decarbonisation activities and combine them with the institution’s operational budget (application schemes such as the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme currently in place create bias towards those with the greatest resource to respond to them). Review the strategic implications of this analysis within your institution.
3. Establish the necessary objectives, key results and KPIs needed to be able to monitor the effectiveness of investments.