In assessing progress on climate change, a crucial question is how to count greenhouse gas emissions, whether to assess territorial emissions or consumption emissions.
Territorial emissions are those within the borders of a country (or other area), i.e. ignoring emissions generated in the production of imported goods and including emissions generated in the production of exported goods.
Consumption emissions include emissions generated in the production of imported goods, and subtract emissions generated in the production of goods that are exported.
There are compelling arguments for using consumption rather than territorual emissions in assessing progress on reducing emissions .
Progress should be assessed on the basis of consumption emissions.
In assessing progress on climate change, a crucial question is how to count greenhouse gas emissions, whether to assess
territorial emissions or
consumption emissions.
Terminology: territorial and consumption emissions
Territorial emissions are those within the borders of a country (or other area), i.e. ignoring emissions generated in the production of imported goods and including emissions generated in the production of exported goods.
Consumption emissions include emissions generated in the production of imported goods, and subtract emissions generated in the production of goods that are exported.
The chart shows how important the choice is. It shows the changes in UK greenhouse gas emissions since 1990. It is an edited version of a chart published by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [1]:
- The blue (bottom) line gives the figures that the UK Government quotes: just the territorial emissions, i.e. those released on the ground within the UK.
- The green (top) line shows the total including imports and exports (called 'consumption-based emissions').
Considerations in choice of accounting method
- Territorial emissions are easier to measure.
- The emissions from the manufacture of, say, a washing machine are generally similar regardless of where it is manufactured. It does not make sense to treat a German washing machine, some Dutch cheese, or a Vietnamese pair of jeans as zero carbon simply because it was manufactured outside the country of residence.
- A programme of "reducing emissions" by transferring manufacture of goods to another country would be nonsensical.
- The UK Government's Climate Change Committee states in its 2019 report [3] (Box 3.3, p105) "it is important that the actions to reduce UK territorial emissions do not simply off-shore these emissions to other parts of the world".
- The UK Government produces emission factors for company reporting of emissions - these are not zero for foreign goods.
- Consumption emissions are a better measure of the progress of a country in ending fossil fuel use.
Groups and individuals advocating assessment via consumption emissions
- Prof Kevin Anderson, Tyndall Climate Centre, Manchester [4]
- Leeds University academics in their 2020 report commissioned by the WWF [5]
- George Monbiot & Leo Murray in an explanatory video from 2013: Carbon Omissions [6]
- Youth climate activists in their open letter [7]
- Greta Thunberg, e.g. (a) in her speech to MPs [8], and (b) in accusing the UK Government of lying (2021) [9]
- The Labour Party in 2019 under Jeremy Corbyn [10].
- Extinction Rebellion protesters repeatedly [11].
Conclusion
In summary, there are compelling arguments for using consumption rather than territorial emissions in assessing progress on reducing emissions .
Progress should be assessed on the basis of consumption emissions.
References
| [11] | Extinction Rebellion protesters have repeatedly pointed out that the Government's claims of large emission reductions are based on omitting aviation, shipping and emissions embodied in imports, e.g. Rupert Read as part of a delegtion meeting Michael Gove, May 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMGqP5rP8v8 (at 15 mins) |
First published: 4 Jun 2023 1
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