Ministers have abandoned efforts to monitor their own attempts to deliver greener government, according to a report from MPs.

The Commons environmental audit committee (EAC) warned on Tuesday that there appeared to be no "systematic and objective" review of the "greening government" initiative.

But what data is available suggests the performance of Whitehall departments continues to "vary hugely".

According to the MPs, the latest annual report on sustainable development within the government is "far narrower in scope and significance than previous government reports in this series".

"It focuses only on operational management issues, and does not cover the mainstreaming of environmental objectives within policy development," said the MPs.

They added that it was "regrettable" that the government appears to have abandoned monitoring of the greening government initiative in a systematic and objective manner.

"We find it bizarre and highly unsatisfactory that the government should have set a target of sourcing at least 10 per cent electricity from renewables by 2008 when analysis of the latest data shows that 17 out of the 20 ministerial departments already meet - or in many cases significantly exceed - this target," added the report.

"The government must explain why it has not set a more challenging target."

Committee chairman Peter Ainsworth said the government was neglecting an area of "immense importance".

"Central departments are major employers and estate mangers, and also exert huge influence through the policies they are responsible for developing and implementing," he said.

"Yet our results indicate that there is a perceptible loss of momentum in the greening government initiative  - particularly on the policy side - and ministers must demonstrate a new commitment if the sustainable development in government report is really going to live up to its name."

Departmental drift

The EAC pointed to a range of performance variations among government departments.

For example, on the percentage of waste recovered six departments were unable to produce any data, while the remaining departments ranged from nothing at the Export Credits Guarantee Department to 79 per cent at the Department of Trade and Industry.

On other measures, the Cabinet Office failed to purchase any desktop paper from recycled sources, while the Department for Culture, Media and Sport managed a more impressive 100 per cent.

The performance of the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Work and Pensions, which between them account more than half of all desktop paper bought, was described as "very poor", at two per cent and three per cent respectively.