Carbon Trust

Carbon Trust
Company typeNot for Dividend Private Company Limited by Guarantee
IndustryCarbon management and reduction
FoundedMarch 2001; 23 years ago (2001-03) in London, United Kingdom
Headquarters,
United Kingdom
Number of locations
10
Key people
Chris Stark (CEO)
Baroness Brown of Cambridge (Chair)
Number of employees
400+
Websitecarbontrust.com

The Carbon Trust is a United Kingdom-based consultancy established in March 2001. Its aim is to accelerate the pace of private sector decarbonisation and increase energy efficiency in the United Kingdom and worldwide.

The Carbon Trust was originally funded by around £50m of UK tax revenue generated from the Climate Change Levy (CCL), a tax on business energy use. The trust's initial goal was to help businesses reduce energy costs and therefore offset the additional cost of paying the CCL. The establishment of the Carbon Trust was announced in the 2000 UK White Paper "Climate Change - the UK Programme" (Cmd 4913).[1]

The Carbon Trust was conceived as a business-led, publicly funded organisation operating at arms length from the UK government.[2] The early concept, design, and governance were carried out in close consultation with business. Senior officials from the Devolved Administrations and the UK department (the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions) would sit on the Trust's Board, where non-business non-executive Directors were in the majority. However, the chair, CEO and most of the executive team were appointed from the private sector, most notably the oil and gas and management consultancy sectors. Founding CEO Tom Delay previously worked at Shell for 16 years before beginning his 22-year tenure as CEO of the trust.

In July 2023, Delay announced his retirement from his role as CEO of the Carbon Trust.[3] In January 2024, the Carbon Trust appointed Chris Stark, former head of the UK Climate Change Committee, as CEO, with Stark's term beginning in Spring 2024.[4]

  1. ^ Climate change: the UK programme (PDF). London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. November 2000. ISBN 978-0-10-149132-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 January 2022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  2. ^ Mallaburn, Peter S.; Eyre, Nick (February 2014). "Lessons from energy efficiency policy and programmes in the UK from 1973 to 2013". Energy Efficiency. 7 (1): 23–41. doi:10.1007/s12053-013-9197-7. ISSN 1570-646X. S2CID 154515990.
  3. ^ "All good things come to an end". The Carbon Trust. 15 June 2023. Archived from the original on 11 January 2024. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  4. ^ "Chris Stark to lead the Carbon Trust". The Carbon Trust. 11 January 2024. Archived from the original on 5 February 2024. Retrieved 6 April 2024.