03 Sep 2010
The UK’s carbon emissions have increased in the last twenty years, not fallen as many have reported, a leading scientist has claimed. The current figures for our carbon footprint exclude the emissions released as a result of the items we import. Professor Bob Watson, the government’s chief environmental scientist has reported that we have increased emissions by 12% since 1990. In a new documentary to be aired by the BBC on radio 4 next week, Professor Watson says there is a need to be more open about the rises in emissions generated by products made in emerging economies such as China and India and sold in our market. He said “at face value emissions look like they have decreased 15 to 16 per cent since 1990. But if we take in carbon embedded in our imports, our emissions have gone up by 12 per cent. We’ve got to be more open about this.” Under the existing system of counting emissions, greenhouse gases created during the manufacture of goods are counted in the country where they are made, not in the country where they are used. A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change disputed the figure saying: “Our position is that greenhouse gas emissions have been cut by 22 per cent since 1990. While some emission reductions have resulted from the trend of manufacturing to move overseas, international rules state that emissions from manufacturing are counted by the country of production”. The government says the best way of counting global emissions is to reach an international climate deal. Uncertain Climate will air on BBC radio 4 at 9:00pm and 9:00pm on Monday the 6th of September.
