A group set up by the Government to help businesses to reduce their carbon emissions has had only a limited impact and must do far more to meet the scale of the challenge, according to Whitehall’s top spending watchdog.

A report on the Carbon Trust by the National Audit Office (NAO) said only 12 per cent of large UK businesses had worked with the group to lower their emissions. What is more, only 40 per cent of the possible savings identified by the trust between 2003 and 2006 had been implemented.

The NAO said the low level of implementation was due to competing investment priorities at large businesses and public sector bodies, as well as a lack of commitment to the proposed changes from top-level management.

Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO, said in the report that the Carbon Trust’s achievement of cutting emissions by up to two million tonnes this year was commendable but was a small one in view of the scale of the challenge ahead.

The Carbon Trust was created in 2001 as a private company intended to accelerate the adoption of energy efficient technology and the development of a low-carbon economy. It received more than £103 million of public funds in 2006/07.

Other observers were more candid about Carbon Trust’s achievements and its cost effectiveness in the battle to counter climate change.

Alex Lambie, head of greenhelpline. com, said: “At an annual cost of £103 million of taxpayers’ money, their achievements are worryingly small and symptomatic of the Government’s persistently disjointed and misguided approach to tackling climate change.” He called for greater government support for green energy products aimed at consumers, such as 100 per cent renewable energy tariffs.

The Government is trying to reduce UK emissions of carbon dioxide by 20 per cent from 1990 levels by 2010, reducing the total amount produced by the UK from 592 million tonnes per year to 474 million tonnes.

The NAO said that the Carbon Trust’s two million tonne reduction in 2006/07 represented a cost saving for the bodies involved of between £410 million and £655 million.

It said the trust was “likely” to achieve a 4.4 million-tonne reduction in emissions by 2010.

Tom Delay, chief executive of the Carbon Trust, said the NAO’s report was “ very welcome” given the urgent need for business to take further action on reducing carbon emissions.

He said the report “has some valuable recommendations that we will examine as part of our ongoing commitment to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy”.

Yesterday the UN’s weather agency published data that showed greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere reached a record high last year with carbon dioxide playing an increasingly significant role in global warming.

Average global average concentrations in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide were higher than ever in measurements coordinated by the World Meteorological Organisation, Geir Braathen, a climate specialist at the Geneva-based agency, said.

“CO2 as a greenhouse gas is getting more and more important,” he said.

The NAO’s report on the Carbon Trust’s effectiveness comes ahead of a key meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia, next month.

The conference will bring together representatives of more than 180 countries, seeking to continue the work of the Kyoto Protocol.

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