Collection

UK greenhouse gas emissions statistics

This page brings together official statistics on UK greenhouse gas emissions and related publications.

Three different measures of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions are available:

  • Territorial emission estimates (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero) show emissions within the UK’s borders. These are taken from the UK’s greenhouse gas inventory, a consistent time series of UK greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 onwards
  • the UK’s carbon footprint (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)) shows all emissions associated with UK consumption, regardless of where they occur in the world
  • ‘Residency’ based emissions published in the ONS UK Environmental Accounts include emissions from UK residents and UK-registered businesses, regardless of whether they are in the UK or overseas

The final territorial emissions statistics based on the greenhouse gas inventory are published each February. They provide the latest emissions estimates and help the UK to monitor its progress towards:

Provisional statistics (published each March) provide an early indication of trends in emissions nearly a year ahead of the final statistics publication. Local authority emissions statistics are published each June, allowing local authorities to monitor their progress against any local level targets.

Projections of future emissions are available from the Energy and emissions projections. These are produced annually and help to monitor the progress being made to meet the UK’s carbon budgets.

The Climate Change Portal brings together climate change data from across the UK government, covering areas like climate and weather, impacts, and mitigation. The emissions section of the portal incorporates data from the various emissions publications in a range of graphs and charts. The underlying datasets are available to download.

For information on emissions conversion factors please visit government emission conversion factors for greenhouse gas company reporting.

Territorial emission statistics

Devolved administration greenhouse gas inventories (available on the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory website).

Factsheets and other technical reports

Factsheets for each National Communication sector and greenhouse gas (GHG) reported on in the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory, are available from the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI). National Communication sectors allocate emissions into distinct sectors such as energy supply, transport, and business.

The factsheets provide a snapshot of historic emissions and their associated sources, data sets and methods used for estimating emissions, uncertainties and improvements.

More detailed information is available in the latest National Inventory Report (also known as the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory Annual Report) in the Reports section of the NAEI website.

Supplementary technical reports relating to greenhouse gas emissions include the following:

Discontinued statistics

Until 2016 BEIS published quarterly territorial greenhouse gas emission estimates based on provisional energy use data. These statistics are no longer published in this format, but quarterly emissions estimates can still be found in the provisional UK greenhouse gas emission statistics published each March.

Published 11 February 2015
Last updated 8 February 2023 + show all updates
  1. Old document series removed, latest versions added, contact details updated.

  2. Annual statement of emissions for 2016 published.

  3. Link to National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory factsheets added

  4. Annual statement of emissions for 2015.

  5. Latest annual emissions staement published.

  6. First published.