A new consultation on how the higher education sector can reduce its carbon footprint has been launched.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) has stated that universities should aspire to half their emissions by 2020, and 80% by 2050.

Universities will find steep carbon-reduction targets challenging because of an expansion in student numbers and demand for longer opening hours, but experts believe the proposals are realistic.

The higher education sector’s total emissions output was 2.4m tonnes of carbon dioxide in 1990, which has since risen by 34% to 3.3m tonnes in 2006.

Diana Warwick, chief executive of Universities UK said: “We support this goal.  Universities, as educators, have been playing a vital role in moving the sustainability development agenda forward, and seeking a reduction in carbon emissions is key to this.”

The consultation, which runs until October, is exploring how universities can cut their emissions through transport, buildings’ energy use and procurement of goods and services, though it makes clear that it will be for individual institutions to decide how they’ll meet the targets.

Energi specialises in renewable technology projects across the public, private and education sectors, including two flagship projects at University of Central Lancashire and Manchester Metropolitan University.