Smarter fuels cut UK emissions by 10 million tonnes

Just a quickie for you here: Defra has put out the latest results of its studies on the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions by person, gas, industry and so on. Wondering how we’re doing? Read on, for Greenbang has picked the tastiest stats for your emission degustation…

In 2007, UK emissions of the basket of six greenhouse gases(1) covered by the Kyoto Protocol were provisionally estimated to be 639.4 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent(2). This was 2 per cent lower than the 2006 figure of 652.3 million tonnes.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main greenhouse gas, accounting for about 85 per cent of total UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2006, the latest year for which final results are available. In 2007, UK net emissions of carbon dioxide(3) were provisionally estimated to be 543.7 million tonnes. This was 2 per cent lower than the 2006 figure of 554.5 million tonnes. The decrease resulted from fuel switching from coal to natural gas for electricity generation, combined with lower fossil fuel consumption by households and industry.

There was little change in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on an end-user basis between 2005 and 2006. In 2006, total CO2 emissions were 554.5 million tonnes. Ninety per cent of this total was accounted for by three sectors; business, transport and residential, which represented 35 per cent, 28 per cent and 27 per cent of the total respectively. Of these sectors there was an increase of 1.4 per cent in business emissions, from 193.4 million tonnes in 2005 to 196.1 million tonnes in 2006, but little change in residential or transport emissions.