STATISTICAL RELEASE
Date: 18 September 2008
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2006 Carbon Dioxide emissions at Local Authority and Government Office Region level
Estimates are published today of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions for 2006, and revised estimates for 2005, for all UK Local Authorities and Government Office Regions.
A summary, together with the full report and data tables are available from the e-Digest of Environmental Statistics on the Defra web site at: www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/globatmos/galocalghg.htm
Key points
- These estimates are an improvement on the previous datasets for 2003, 2004 and 2005 all of which were published as “experimental statistics”. The experimental label was used to indicate that they were still under development, and were not comparable from year to year. However, the 2006 dataset, together with revised 2005 dataset, which is being published at the same time, is now classified as full National Statistics owing to improvements in accuracy. The 2005 and 2006 datasets are now comparable with each other, allowing meaningful comparisons for the first time.
- Emissions on an end-user basis have been assigned to all 434 local authorities in the UK: 354 of these are in England, 32 in Scotland, 26 in Northern Ireland and 22 in Wales.
- Overall, 46 per cent of end-user emissions assigned to local authority areas were attributed to the industrial and commercial sector, 29 per cent to the domestic sector, and 25 per cent to road transport.
- There are wide local variations on this mainly because of the economy and geography of different local areas.
- The industrial and commercial sector had the highest share of end-user emissions in 48% of authorities. The road transport sector had the highest share in 23% and the domestic sector the highest share in 28% of authorities. The road transport sector had the lowest share in 56% of authorities.
- In 2006, about 47 per cent of domestic end-user emissions come from gas use and 43 per cent are due to electricity consumption, showing little change from 2005 when the figures were 48 and 42 per cent respectively.
- In 2006, domestic end-user emissions were less than 2 tonnes per person in 1 per cent of Local Authorities, between 2 and 2.5 tonnes per person in 37 per cent, between 2.5 and 3 tonnes per person in 52 per cent and above 3 tonnes per person in 9 per cent.
The aim of this statistical release is to provide the most reliable and consistent possible breakdown of CO2 emissions across the country, using nationally available data sets.
Wherever possible, estimates are based on ‘real’ local data such as electricity and gas consumption, and emissions from sites where pollution is regulated. All emissions from energy production (e.g. from electricity generation or refineries) are allocated according to where energy is actually consumed by householders and businesses, rather than where the source of the energy is located. The remaining emissions are assigned to local areas on the basis of other local information such as traffic, population, employment and data on household fuel types.
The main data sources are the UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory, maintained on behalf of Defra and the Devolved Administrations by our contractors, AEA, and BERR’s National Statistics of energy consumption for local authority areas. The work to produce the estimates was carried out by AEA.
All emissions included in the national inventory are covered, except aviation, shipping and military transport, for which there is no obvious basis for allocation to local areas
These estimates are intended as a resource to help those working on local or regional indicators and inventories as part of their efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. On their own, however, they cannot give all the information necessary to plan and monitor the progress of all local emissions reduction initiatives - this may require additional monitoring at the local level.
Other results published today
Also published today is the subset of the main Local Authority CO2 dataset that will be used to monitor Local Government Performance Framework indicator NI186 (Per capita CO2 emissions in the LA area). This subset excludes emissions in the main dataset which are considered to fall outside the scope of the indicator (e.g. emissions from motorways and emissions from some installations in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme). As the indicator is based on per capita emissions, it uses population estimates published by the Office for National Statistics at the Local Authority level. Since these statistics are a subset of the main dataset, revised figures for 2005 have again been published alongside the new 2006 figures.
More information about the policy context of this indicator, and a spreadsheet with the data for this subset can be found at the links below. Local Authorities should note that the figures published previously for 2005 should now be treated as obsolete; it is only the revised 2005 figures that can be directly compared with the new 2006 statistics. The old 2005 figures (both total emissions and emissions per capita) have been included on the spreadsheet for information.
Link to Climate change NI186 webpage
Local and Regional CO2 Emissions Estimates for 2005-2006 (Microsoft Excel format 922 KB)
Notes to editors
- Under the terms of the National Statistics Code of Practice, these results are classified as full National Statistics for the first time. In previous years they have been labelled as experimental National Statistics, indicating that they were still under development. The National Statistician has now given approval that the statistics are of sufficiently high quality to no longer need the experimental label.
- The official estimates of carbon dioxide emissions for the UK are produced on behalf of Defra and the Devolved Administrations by AEA as part of the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory. The full inventory estimates for the UK were published in January, while separate figures for the Devolved Administrations, covering emissions by source rather than end-user, are also published today. This project to estimate local CO2 emissions is designed to be as consistent as possible with the national inventories – it does not supersede any of the official national estimates previously published.
- A Ministerial press release has also been issued, and can be found at: www.defra.gov.uk/news/2008/index.htm
End
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Page published: 18 September 2008