Our sustainability journey; carbon neutral by 2030

How the Met Office is moving to carbon neutrality by 2030.

As a leading contributor to United Nations climate research the Met Office knows first-hand how greenhouse gas emissions are impacting our climate. We have therefore set out on our journey to carbon neutrality and charted a pathway to neutralise the harmful greenhouse gases from our operational activities and supply chain. 

We aim to substantially reduce these, eliminating them where possible over the next decade, and use carbon removals for our residual emissions that are not currently possible to remove in their entirety.

Our emissions are measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most common greenhouse gas, or an equivalent (CO2e) amount of other greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide or hydrofluorocarbons. Our total CO2e emissions are often referred to as our carbon footprint.

Contents

Our starting point 

To understand our carbon emissions an initial baseline assessment was conducted of the Met Office CO2e emissions for the 2019/20 financial year. We have since completed a thorough re-assessment of our baseline, incorporating all we have learned since we embarked on our journey. This includes a comprehensive view of the emissions from all the equipment and services we need to deliver our essential customer services. This allows us to identify key areas to tackle and those where we can make the biggest improvements.

Existing successes 

We have already made significant achievements on our journey towards carbon neutrality.  

  • In 2020, the electricity supply to our main operational locations was switched to zero carbon electricity and then we have used a mix of renewable and zero carbon nuclear tariffs available to us through our Crown Commercial Services supplier EDF. In the 27/28 financial year we are moving to the EDF Clean Renewable tariff.   
  • We have taken a number of other measures to improve our building management efficiencies. This includes the installation of solar panels, the use of borehole water, recycling IT and improvements in waste management including an onsite composter for our food waste.    
  • We have set targets aiming to reduce business travel emissions by 40% by 2030. We have reduced our commuting emissions and will formulate plans to reduce them much further by 2030.  
  • We have previously used certified carbon removals for our remaining business travel emissions but are now investing in UK nature-based carbon removal projects.  
  • We have engaged with our major suppliers, through an annual questionnaire and follow-up meetings, to understand their emissions and start working with them on their own sustainability journeys - from those providing satellite data to those supporting our world-leading computing facilities.
  • We have worked together with the international meteorological community to ensure all our future weather and climate services are provided in as sustainable a way as possible. This included involvement in the development of sustainable observation practices, and the procurement of more sustainable Radiosondes.

Our Carbon Reduction Plan gives details of our progress to date and our future plans.

Our approach to carbon removal

To meet national and international goals on climate action, it is vital for organisations to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. Alongside this, to accelerate progress in the context of practical and financial constraints, carbon removals or sequestrations can also play a role in reducing an organisation’s carbon footprint if implemented appropriately.

Carbon removal is a process in which carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (e.g. methane) are removed from the atmosphere and sequestered for long periods of time with the net result being an overall reduction in these gases in the atmosphere.

The use of carbon removals or sequestration can be an integral element of managing any business organisation's carbon footprint and a recognised component of national and global emission reduction targets. The primary objective of any business' environmental strategy will be to reduce emissions and set a trajectory towards carbon neutrality. However, it is not yet viable for all organisations to eliminate all operational greenhouse gas emissions in an economically cost-effective manner and the use of robust and well-designed carbon removal programmes can deliver a practical, cost-effective approach to delivering environmental benefits.

As a result, 'voluntary carbon markets' are developing rapidly and create opportunities to stimulate economic growth and deliver significant co-benefits. Currently, most carbon removal or offsetting programmes are nature-based solutions, but longer term engineered or geological solutions are likely to make up an increasing share of the market as technologies develop.

The Met Office is working to reduce our carbon emissions to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 on our journey to carbon neutrality. Due to the nature of Met Office operations, it will not be possible to completely eradicate our greenhouse gas emissions and we will need to use carbon removals to achieve carbon neutrality.

The Met Office aims where possible to support programmes that:

•             Remove or sequester, rather than reduce or mitigate carbon emissions

•             Promote UK nature-based carbon removals, especially where they deliver wider benefits that support UK Government objectives

•             Meet recognised standards for additionality, permanence and transparency

•             Have robust verification and accreditation procedures

•             Protect existing agricultural and economic activity, while stimulating the development of new markets

Scientific alignment

The Met Office Hadley Centre has modelled large numbers of future climate and greenhouse gas trajectories. 

Trajectories that restrict temperature increases to recognised international targets will require significant levels of carbon removal in addition to reduction in emissions – but carbon removal is additional to emissions reductions, not a substitution

This is an assumption that underlies projections from organisations such as the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the UK’s Climate Change Committee.

Support for other organisations 

Our substantial increase in supercomputing capability has led to improvements in weather forecasts and climate change predictions. As the national deadline to reach Net Zero by 2050 moves closer, the supercomputing capability will play a central role in understanding how carbon budgets and mitigation scenarios will avoid the most dangerous impacts of global climate change.

The Met Office is already working with leading businesses and organisations to increase energy efficiency and improve resilience with the long-term goal of reducing carbon emissions. Detailed forecasts are being used to optimise energy usage, improve efficiency of renewable energy sources and even reduce the carbon footprint of air travel, thanks to detailed wind forecasting helping to plan flight paths.

Next steps 

To maintain our focus on becoming carbon neutral by 2030, we will work closely with our employees, partners, customers, supply chain and stakeholders in government and the wider meteorological community. Together we can make further real changes and adapt the way we work while still providing safety critical meteorological services and world-renowned climate science. Having prioritised organisational effort to develop a science-based approach to reducing our CO2e emissions, we are now embedding our sustainability approach into everything we do as a business.

The Met Office’s first Carbon Reduction Plan was published in 2026 under PPN 06/21.

We have already learned from those around us and the Met Office journey to carbon neutrality by 2030 will continue to be re-evaluated and adapted as more technologies become available. We will continue to develop detailed action plans to put in place for each step of our journey.

Met Office travel

As an environmental organisation, we encourage our staff to consider greener alternatives to travel, both on the daily commute and while on business.

Cycling to work

The Met Office supports Cycle 2 Work through which we provide help towards the purchase of bicycles and equipment for healthy, low carbon travel via a salary sacrifice scheme.

We also have a Met Office Bicycle Users Group (MOBUG) group which organises social trips at weekends and night rides during summer months; the group promotes the health benefits and social aspects of cycling.

We also have a selection of pool bikes at our headquarters that staff can borrow including two electric bikes and a fold up bike. Using the pool bikes often help staff decide the type of bike they would like if they are thinking of purchasing their own.

Air travel

As an organisation with the environment very much at its heart, we recognise the need to limit air travel. Therefore, our staff must go through a rigorous justification process in order to determine whether air travel is essential. Our Travel Policy requires lower carbon options to be considered first as an alternative to each planned business flight – this is a requirement under the Greening Government Commitments.

In order to reduce the need for air travel, alternative approaches such as Microsoft Teams and video conferencing are available. We are always keen to work with our external partners to facilitate effective remote participation to avoid air travel if possible.

The white fleet (our owned and leased vehicles)

We have leased two fully electric pool cars at our Exeter headquarters for business travel and we are working to move our operational vehicle fleet over to zero emissions vehicles in line with the Greening Government Commitments.

Supercomputer and environmental benefits

Our supercomputer, or High-Performance Computer (HPC), takes in billions of weather observations from all over the world. It uses these observations as a starting point for running an atmospheric model containing more than a million lines of code. As of 2020, our supercomputer has been powered by zero carbon electricity. Our supercomputing capability is provided by Microsoft and hosted in UK datacentres powered by 100% renewable energy.

The capacity of our supercomputer enables us to improve our weather and climate forecasts. These forecasts help people make better-informed decisions, realising socio-economic benefits by avoiding costs, reducing waste and improving efficiency and effectiveness. 

Ultimately, our supercomputer helps to shape a more sustainable world - from warning of extreme weather to helping communities plan for and reduce the impacts of climate change. 

Our global aviation forecasts, for example, enable airlines to save fuel by using the wind to help carry them to their destination, helping to reduce carbon dioxide emissions through increased efficiency. 

Crucially, Met Office forecasts save lives through our Severe Weather Warnings, mountain area forecasts, marine forecasts, and a host of other services, including our climate advice and services which help avoid widespread and dangerous impacts of climate change. 

Supercomputing makes it possible to increase high-resolution climate modelling and provide more complete Earth System models to better assess future impacts of a changing climate at a regional scale, especially from high impact weather. This gives decision-makers a clearer picture of climate change and what it will mean, helping to plan for a more sustainable future. 

Find out more about our supercomputer.

Reporting our energy consumption

Our greenhouse gas emissions performance is overseen by our Enabling Domain Operations Board which includes an Executive Board member. Each year we publish details of our energy performance in the Sustainability section of our Annual Report which also includes our Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures Report. 


Last updated: October 2026

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