Policy paper

Net zero business sector roadmap guidelines (HTML)

Published 14 August 2023

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

© Crown copyright 2023

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Business sector roadmap criteria

1. A credible pathway aligned to HMG’s Net Zero Strategy

  • Show emissions reduction pathways for scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
  • Include other strategic enabling activities the sector must take as part of an economy-wide transition (with any reliance on carbon offsets set out transparently and compatible with relevant net zero strategy assumptions for the sector)
  • Provide real-world deployment figures mapping to emissions pathways
  • Identify supporting government policies
  • Identify energy demand across the sector and sector level of readiness
  • Show dependencies with other sector pathways and wider net zero roadmaps

2. Robust delivery plan and structures

  • Set out a clear delivery plan including actions required to deliver on the pathways
  • Have the commitment of a high proportion of businesses in the sector
  • Be supported by the capacity and capability to facilitate delivery
  • Monitor and account for delivery, including mechanisms to correct course where needed
  • Commit to annual public reporting on progress with defined KPIs for all decarbonisation actions
  • Identify behavioural as well as technology changes that are needed to adopt a holistic approach to delivery
  • Consider SMEs in delivery

Enablers for collaboration

3. Collaboration on barriers, gaps and dependencies, including:

  • Regular identification of barriers and gaps, including finance challenges
  • Mechanism to overcome barriers and gaps, currently the Net Zero Council
  • Mechanism to identify dependencies and ensure they are robust and well sequenced, using the cross economy roadmap tool

4. Independent assessment of roadmaps to ensure credibility

  • Sectors report on how they have met the criteria in 1 and 2
  • Objective assessment of roadmaps against criteria, including of the pathway and delivery plan
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