Capital funding for universities and higher education institutions will be linked to how well they fare against government carbon reduction targets from 2011.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) said bodies will need to prepare their own carbon management plans and their performance against these will then be used to assess capital allocations.
Within the national set of targets, individual institutions will have to decide how best to reduce, measure, review and report progress on their emissions.
In 2008, then Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary John Denham called for the move, saying “institution-wide strategies to reduce carbon emissions” were needed.
The HEFCE is asking for views “on its initial thinking for linking capital funding to carbon emissions” as part of its joint consultation with Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, and GuildHE, which represents higher education colleges, on developing a carbon reduction target and strategy.
HEFC chief executive Sir Alan Langlands said higher education was “uniquely placed to play a leading role in helping the UK meet its targets.”
Richard Rugg, the trust’s head of public sector, said: “HEFCE’s consultation is valuable because it will encourage universities and colleges to focus on the practical details of how they are going to cut their carbon.”
