Government has vowed to publish its roadmap for making the education estate net-zero, after admitting its school rebuilding programme alone won鈥檛 be enough to hit targets. Academies minister Baroness Barran made the commitment today in the wake of concerns raised by MPs over the progress the Department for Education has made on decarbonisation. The warned in November that the DfE is not moving quickly enough to deliver its goals of slashing emissions by three-quarters by 2037, before becoming net zero in 2050. Writing in response, Barran said MPs were 鈥渞ight to acknowledge the scale of the challenge鈥. Pointing to the school rebuilding programme, the Conservative stated: 鈥淎s you note, our centrally delivered programmes are already energy efficient 鈥榥et zero ready鈥 buildings”. These are “more resilient to climate change, more energy efficient than required by building regulations, reducing carbon emissions and operating costs while improving the learning environment”. 鈥淗owever, this alone will not enable the education estate, which is managed by over 3,000 responsible bodies, to meet net-zero targets by 2037.鈥 Barran appeared before the committee in October as MPs examined the DfE鈥檚 eco targets. Following the hearing, its chair, Philip Dunne, told education secretary Gillian Keegan 鈥渋t is not clear to us that the progress currently being made is at a pace which will allow the department to achieve鈥 its targets. He said the retrofits needed to reach net zero would 鈥渞esult in a significant charge on the public purse鈥, with forecasts suggesting it could cost 拢2 billion per annum to revamp 650 schools each year. Current plans would 鈥渟ee only 20 per cent of the schools estate in England net zero compliant by 2050鈥. Net-zero roadmap slated for autumn Dunne urged the government to 鈥渆stablish and publish a realistic and fully costed plan鈥 for the achievement of its sustainability goals 鈥渁s a matter of urgency鈥. And in today鈥檚 letter, Barran promised officials 鈥渨ill continue to develop our evidence base on the most effective approaches to decarbonisation and resilience鈥. They will 鈥渋nform the department鈥檚 future planning鈥, including how its 鈥渟ustainability commitments best align with wider capital investment in the estate鈥, she argued. 鈥淭o this end, we agree in principle with the committee鈥檚 recommendation that the department should publish a detailed roadmap to achieving our sustainability targets 鈥 we aim to do so by autumn 2024.鈥 Despite this, committee members remain 鈥渃oncerned that the long-term funding to meet the DfE鈥檚 sustainability objectives is yet to be allocated鈥. Dunne added: 鈥淚 welcome the minister鈥檚 commitment to publish a roadmap later this year for the Department for Education to meet its sustainability targets. 鈥淭his will be an invaluable resource, allowing the department to set out in detail the challenge ahead and giving ministers sufficient visibility of the urgent case for significant additional funding for this large element of the public buildings estate.鈥