Devolved Administration Greenhouse Gas Inventories, 1990-2010

The report presents estimates of greenhouse gas emissions for the constituent countries of the UK on both ‘by-source’ and ‘end-user’ basis.  Separate greenhouse gas emission inventories have been estimated for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for the years 1990, 1995 and 1998 to 2010.

The information published in this report will be used to establish the 2006-2010 baseline against which the Welsh Government’s commitment to reduce emissions in Wales by 3 per cent per year by 2011, in areas of devolved competence, is measured.

The full report is available via the NAEI website.

The key points for Wales are:

• Overall, since the base year (1990/1995), emissions of the basket of greenhouse gases have generally fallen.  In 2010 it was estimated that emissions totalled
  46.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent, a fall of 15 per cent compared to base year emissions.
• There was an increase of around 8 per cent in greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 compared with 2009. This was due to increases in the residential, business and industrial process sectors, which may have been affected by the cold winters, at the start and end of 2010, and an increase in the production of iron and steel.
• The main source of emissions continues to be the energy sector which produces around 36 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions. In comparison, business is the second biggest source, accounting for 21 per cent of emissions in 2010.
• Wales has a higher proportion of traded emissions covered by the EU Emissions trading Scheme than the rest of the UK, referred to as the ‘traded’ sector. This reflects the high share of heavy industry and electricity generation in Wales (e.g. emissions from power stations, refineries and integrated iron and steelworks). As a result, 48.4 per cent of the total CO2 emissions in Wales were produced by the ‘non-traded’ sector in 2010.
• When considering emissions from end users as opposed to energy producers, for example emissions from power stations are re-allocated to users of electricity, it is estimated that, with exclusion of emissions associated with energy exports, Wales has seen a fall of over 22 per cent since the base year.
• Wales has a lesser share of UKs end user emissions compared to the by source estimates, and has achieved higher emission reductions since the base year than the by source inventories indicate.

Please note these figures are not classed as National Statistics.

Further information

National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory website.

Contact

Tel: 029 2082 5063
Email: stats.environment@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Next update

July 2013 (provisional - to be confirmed on the 'Due Out Soon' page)