UK carbon gains illusory a carbon emitting activities have been 'exported' - Chief Environment Scientist

Fri 03 September 2010 View all news

Professor Bob Watson, the Government's Chief Environment Scientist, says that when the carbon emissions 'embedded' in imported goods are taken into account, UK emissions of CO2 have increased by about 12 per cent since 1990 rather than falling 15-16% as official figures show.

Professor Watson says the same syndrome is true for other rich nations which offshored manufacturing industry. The embedded emissions means that apparent increases in emissions in countries like China and India are a result of the manufacture of products which are then imported into the UK and other western countries.

A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said this phenomenon was acknowledged by the government but international rules state that emissions from manufacturing should be counted by the country of production. 

Some analysts think it is impossible to track CO2 emissions along modern supply chains where manufactured goods often contain components from many manufacturers in different countries.


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