Dear Bank of England,

Please consider this request for information under the Environmental Information Regulations.

For the years 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2021, please provide information (including financial and cost benefit analyses) with regard to decisions, measures and activities (for example - the installation of cycle facilities for staff, the replacement of old air conditioning systems, MFDs or lamps, the installation of solar panels) in your London premises which resulted in the reduction of emissions in London.

If it would take too long to provide information for 5 years, please provide the information for 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2021.

Yours faithfully,

Anton Faraday

Dear Bank of England Information Access Team
Thank you for your reply to my EIR.
My clarifications are as follows:
· by 'London premises’ I mean: premises the Bank owns and occupies such as your Head Office in Threadneedle Street and also premises the Bank owns and leases to others;
· by ‘reduction of emissions in London’ I mean a reduction in emissions from Bank premises in London (owned and occupied by the Bank of England and also those that are leased to others) which consequently result in a reduction in emissions in London more generally
· I do not have a materiality threshold in mind but I am interested in direct influence on emissions rather than indirect influence.
To put my EIR in context, Mark Carney, previous Bank of England Governor but currently UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, has spoken about the role of banks and companies in achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. I would like to know what decisions, measures and activities were put in place for the buildings owned by the Bank of England during Mr Carney’s tenure which had an objective of reducing emissions.
Yours sincerely
Anton Faraday

Dear Bank of England Information Access Team

II would like to request an internal review into the way that you have handled my EIR.

I do not concur with your conclusion that my EIR is ‘manifestly unreasonable.’ Disclosure of information detailing how the Bank of England has already reduced its emissions and how it intends to reduce its absolute emissions by 2030/31 by 63% is of great benefit and easily outweighs the cost of searching your ‘electronic document management system’.

The Bank of England’s emissions target figures, including the 63% reduction in emissions by 2030/31, must surely be based on research ie decisions, measures and activities that include those that have a direct influence on emissions from premises that are owned/occupied and also leased to others in London.
Having excluded indirect emissions and emissions from business travel, the information I am looking for relates to the combustion of natural gas and oil and use of electricity at the aforementioned premises, use of fossil fuels in vehicles and fugitive emissions of refrigerants.

It is hardly unreasonable to ask you to look for this information in the background papers/reports etc that informed the emission reduction targets that you include in your 'strategic priorities.'

Yours sincerely,

Anton Faraday