Are UK greenhouse gas emissions really falling?

The UK’s greenhouse gas emissions dropped a small amount last year as a result of less fuel being consumed due to a mild winter and more recycled waste.

UK greenhouse gas emissions for 2006 fell to 652.3m tonnes, showing a reduction of 0.5% on the year before. Accounting for 85% of total greenhouse gas emissions in Britain, CO2 emissions similarly dropped 0.1% in the same period.

These figures mean that the UK is on course to meet legally-binding Kyoto targets for emissions to be cut by 12.5% by 2012, in comparison to 1990 levels.

However green campaigners were quick to criticise the government for not doing enough to help the environment stating how the figures fall short of government self inflicted targets to reduce emissions by 20% by the end of the decade and by 50% by 2050.

Furthermore campaigners were outraged at the fact that the UK’s share of international aviation and shipping were not included in totals.

Latest figures show that the largest rises in greenhouse gas emissions were from road transporters and energy providers with rises of 1.3% and 1.5% respectively. Combined these account for over 60% of UK CO2 emissions.

Falls in the gas consumed in homes and offices and a high fall in the number of methane emissions from agriculture and landfill sites counteracted these rises.

A mild winter combined with high gas prices accounts for the 4% fall in the production of greenhouse gases in homes. Similarly businesses recorded a cut of 1.6%.

Emissions from landfill sites dropped a huge 61%, due in large part to improved recycling systems. Agriculture site emissions dropped 13%.

Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, spoke of the improvements in a positive light yet still stressed the importance of efforts to maintain and improve the downward trend.

He spoke of the positive fact that people are far more aware of their impact upon the environment now than ever before.

Yet Richard Dyer, a transport campaigner for Friends of the Earth, claimed how the figures showed that the government was failing to adequately tackle climate change, speaking of the figures as pitiful. He stressed the importance of delivering a strong climate change law, but more significantly, a law that will include aviation emissions rather than ignoring their existence.

Current UK greenhouse gas emissions stand 16.4% lower than those in 1990. When the European trading schemes are included, that allow for other countries to pay for others to make pollution cuts, the UK reduction figure stands at 20.7%