Low carbon public procurement for UK competitiveness

This policy briefing examines how the UK government could adopt a more ambitious approach to low carbon public procurement (LCPP) to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy and support the objectives of the Modern Industrial Strategy and the Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy.

Amongst the key findings are:

• Existing procurement policies have yet to translate into meaningful impacts for industrial producers.
• Public procurement is increasingly expected to support decarbonisation, but
• Low carbon public procurement is not a standalone solution.

The report makes eight recommendations to government that would ensure public procurement supports UK industrial competitiveness and decarbonisation.

The analysis draws on research commissioned by the Aldersgate Group and delivered by Cambridge Econometrics (CE), which examined the role of LCPP in accelerating competitive industrial decarbonisation in the UK. CE’s supporting technical report details the qualitative and quantitative methods, data, assumptions and findings from a theory of change assessment and a multi-criteria analysis of selected industrial sub-sectors.

Cambridge Econometrics’ economic analysis can be found here: Assessing the role of public procurement in scaling markets for low-carbon industrial products