Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has in place to report carbon emissions embedded in imports when reporting UK carbon emissions statistics.

The UK follows the agreed international approach for estimating and reporting greenhouse gas emissions under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, which is for countries to report the emissions produced within their territories.

The Climate Change Act defines UK emissions as being those of greenhouse gases from sources within the UK, consistent with international reporting practice.

There is no internationally agreed approach to measuring consumption emissions. Estimates of imported emissions in particular are associated with greater levels of uncertainty than estimates of UK-based territorial emissions. These emissions do not, therefore, include emissions from the manufacture of goods imported into the UK, which are reported in the country of manufacture, as this would risk double counting. Accounting for emissions produced within each country’s own border in line with international accounting standards, therefore allows for direct comparison of the UK’s emissions with other countries.

Nevertheless, the UK is at the forefront of measuring consumption emissions with statistics published annually and policies developed to reduce emissions. Emissions on a consumption basis (i.e. including emissions embedded in imports) fell by 21 per cent between 2007 and 2017, and by 3 per cent between 2016 and 2017.