These statistical publications carry the National Statistics logo.
Official Statistics can only be designated as National Statistics when the statistics are prepared in accordance with the rules of the UK Statistics Authority: Code of Practice for Official Statistics and following a formal assessment. Approval from the independent body, UK Statistics Authority requires that statistics are produced to high professional standards and undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs, and they are produced free from any political interference.
In accordance with the Code of Practice, DECC is required to publish a statement of compliance with the Pre-Release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008, together with a list of statistical publications to which the Order applies.
These UK emissions statistics are labelled as “estimates” so as to make it clear that there are still certain levels of inaccuracies associated with them. However, it is important to note that trends over time are likely to be much more reliable.
Frequently Asked Questions
A Frequently asked questions document on UK emissions statistics covering the National Statistics publications, emissions statistics inventory sectors and methodology is available:
Published statistics timetable
- First Tuesday of February: Final UK emissions estimates for the year before last
- Last Thursday in March: Provisional UK emissions estimates for the most recent year
- Third Thursday in September: Local Authority carbon dioxide emissions for the year before last.
Latest published reports
- The 2010 final UK figures: contains final 2010 UK emissions estimates and progress towards targets. This was published on 7 February 2012. For each gas, emissions are reported by sorce sector. Emissions by end user and by fuel type were published on 31 March 2011, and will be updated with 2010 emissions estimates on 29 March 2012. There is also historic data, for all datasets, going back up until 1990.
- The 2010 provisional UK figures: contains provisional 2010 UK emissions estimates. Emissions are reported by source sector and by fuel type. This report also contains estimates of 2009 emissions by end-user sector and by fuel type. There is historic data going back up until 1990.
- The 2009 Local Authority Carbon Dioxide figures: based on Local Authority Carbon Dioxide Figures. Estimates include data for Local Authority (NUTS4) and Regional (NUTS1) areas from 2005 to 2009. The most recent reports were published on 15 September 2011.
Emissions from Heat
Additional information
UK emissions estimates are derived from the UK Greenhouse gas inventory. Additional information on the Greenhouse Gas Inventory, including differences between geographical coverages of reported GHG emissions, and factsheets for each National Communication sector reported on within the UK’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory is available on our GHG Inventory – methods and compilation page.
Emissions in UK Environmental Accounts
Information about emissions by economic sector, on a consistent basis with the economic data held in the National Accounts, is published each year in the UK National Accounts Blue Book. The estimates are based upon the NAEI but also use other sources of information to allocate emissions from sources, such as road transport to the sector which owns the transport.
The estimates also follow as far as possible National Accounts conventions on the scope of the emissions included. This means emissions from the international operations of UK airline, shipping and other transport operators are included, whereas they are excluded under IPCC and UNECE conventions. Adjustments are also made for emissions from energy either bought or used overseas by UK residents.
The latest and recent editions are available on the Office for National Statistics: United Kingdom Environmental Accounts web page.
European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS)
As part of the Final UK Figures report, the contribution of EU ETS towards the UK’s performance against its emissions targets is shown.
Please note that the EU ETS figures are not classified as National Statistics.
Additional information is available on our EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) pages.
Research into additional reporting
DECC statisticians are currently investigating whether it would be possible to produce reliable estimates of UK greenhouse gas emissions on a quarterly basis, with a 3-month time lag, based on quarterly energy statistics which are already being published. If we establish that this is possible, the estimates would effectively only be able to cover emissions of carbon dioxide; we would need to make some high-level assumptions about the other greenhouse gases.
Since we will need to assess whether any estimates are reliable before being able to publish any figures, we will need to run through at least one full annual reporting cycle before we can complete this assessment. We do not therefore expect to be able to publish any quarterly emissions statistics before 2011 at the earliest.
Contacts and further information
Please email the Climate Change Statistics Inbox if you have any questions or comments about the information on this page.
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