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Why count consumption rather than territorial GHG 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.

Territorial emissions are releases of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere 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 territorial emissions in assessing progress on reducing emissions.

In conclusion,
  • progress in ending fossil fuels should be assessed on the basis of consumption emissions
  • if territorial emissions are given, consumption emissions should also be given for comparison
  • if only one measure is given, it should be consumption emissions.

Introduction

In assessing progress on climate change, a crucial question is how to count greenhouse gas emissions, whether to assess territorial emissions or consumption emissions.

The choice of method is important because the two measures give different figures, and the UK Government claims good progress in reducing emissions on the basis of reduction in territorial emissions, while climate campaigners complain that progress has been poor, on the basis of little reduction in consumption emissions.

There has been insufficient discussion on the question, resulting in the Government portraying activists as trouble makers, and activists seeing the Government as corrupt and deceitful.

The lack of discussion has led to conflict, protests and disruption. In a civilised society, there should be a discussion resulting in a consensus.

Terminology: territorial and consumption emissions

Territorial emissions are releases of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere 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 Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) [1] (Figure 1, with editing):
  • The blue (bottom) line gives the figures that the UK Government quotes: just the territorial emissions.
  • The green (top) line shows the total including imports and exports (the consumption emissions).

UK territorial emissions have fallen by about 50% since 1990, whereas consumption emissions have fallen by only about 20%. The difference is because of the large increase in imported goods, especially from China. Once the increase in UK aviation is included, the fall in total UK emissions is even less.

Considerations in choice of accounting method

In favour of reporting consumption emissions:
  • The Rio Declaration of 1992 [2] is an international agreement that includes the principle that
    states should avoid the transfer of harmful activities to other states (Principle 14)
    . So states should take full responsibility for harmful emissions such as greenhouse gas emissions - see document 113.
  • 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 - so there is a lack of consistency in the UK's accounting, giving rise to concerns that the UK is just 'fiddling the figures'.

In favour of reporting territorial emissions:
  • Territorial emissions are easier to measure - but sophisticated methods have now been developed to allow for emissions generated in the manufacture of imports and exports.
  • In the 1992 international agreements, the IPCC specified that territorial emissions should be reported by countries. But this was at a time when territorial and consumption emissions were similar, before the large increase in international trade that makes consumption emissions often very different to territorial emissions. It does not mean that the IPCC recommends that measuring territorial emissions is how progress should be assessed, and in fact, in the Rio Declaration, countries made a commitment to avoid the transfer of harmful activities to other states (see above).

A clear conclusion from these considerations is that consumption emissions are a much 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]
  • The Labour Party in 2019 under Jeremy Corbyn, pledging to base government decisions on consumption rather than territorial emissions [6] .
  • George Monbiot & Leo Murray in an explanatory video from 2013: Carbon Omissions [7]
  • Youth climate activists (Luisa Neubauer, Greta Thunberg, Anuna de Wever van der Heyden, Adélaïde Charlier) in their open letter [8], demanding that total emissions are included in all figures and targets, including consumption emissions, international aviation and shipping
  • Greta Thunberg, e.g. (a) in her speech to MPs [9], and (b) in accusing the UK Government of lying (2021) [10]
  • Extinction Rebellion protesters [11].

Conclusions

In summary, there are compelling arguments for using consumption rather than territorial emissions in assessing progress on reducing emissions.

The conclusions are
  • progress in ending fossil fuels should be assessed on the basis of consumption emissions
  • if territorial emissions are given, consumption emissions should also be given for comparison
  • if only one measure is given, it should be consumption emissions.

References

[1]Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (2025) 2023 UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Final Figures https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67a30e4f7da1f1ac64e5feb1/2023-final-greenhouse-gas-emissions-statistical-release.pdf (accessed 19 May 2025)
[2]https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/A_CONF.151_26_Vol.I_Declaration.pdf
[3]Net Zero: The UK's contribution to stopping global warming (2019) Committee on Climate Change, UK https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Net-Zero-The-UKs-contribution-to-stopping-global-warming.pdf
[4]https://twitter.com/KevinClimate/status/1039931085986181122
[5]WWF/University of Leeds (Mar 2020) https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2020-04/FINAL-WWF-UK_Carbon_Footprint_Analysis_Report_March_2020%20%28003%29.pdf
[6]Corbyn pledges Labour transparency on UK carbon footprint (Jul 2019) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/14/climate-crisis-carbon-emissions-leakage-labour-party-corbyn
[7]George Monbiot & Leo Murray (2013) Carbon Omissions: how the UK outsourced its carbon footprint https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2013/apr/24/carbon-omissions-uk-footprint-animation
[8]Fridays for Future members Face the climate emergency Open letter (Jul 2020) https://climateemergencyeu.org/ or an archived version: https://archive.is/A2isd
[9]Greta Thunberg (2019) Can you hear me? (speech to MPs) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/23/greta-thunberg-full-speech-to-mps-you-did-not-act-in-time
[10]Greta Thunberg accuses the UK of lying about its climate success ahead of COP26 (2021) https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/greta-thunberg-cop26-climate-change-emissions-carbon-footprint-1159154
[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
Last updated: 25 Mar 2026     Page No: 31