UK's carbon footprint gets bigger
The UK's carbon footprint increased in 2010 for the first time since its peak in 2004, new data from Defra has revealed
It shows that between 2009 and 2010, the nation’s footprint rose by 10%, following a 19% fall in 2009.
The environment department also reports that by 2010, UK carbon emissions relating to imports had increased 59% since 1993, with those related to imported goods and services from China rising by a massive 263%.
In 1993, emissions associated with imported goods and services accounted for 30% of the UK’s carbon footprint. By 2010, that figure had risen to 44%. Over the same 18-year period, emissions from domestically produced goods and services fell 12%, accounting for 35% of the UK’s overall footprint, compared with 47% in 1993.
In 2010, emissions of all six main greenhouse gases were 5% up on their 1993 levels. Defra reports that the country’s carbon emissions in 2004 totalled 852 million tonnes (mt), and has since fallen by 15% to 722mt CO2.