The government has this week published the final version of its greenhouse gas emission data for 2014, confirming that the UK economy has continued to deliver deep emission reductions year-on-year.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change's (DECC) latest statistical release reveals UK greenhouse gas emissions fell 7.7 per cent in 2014 to 514.4 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, while carbon dioxide emissions fell 8.9 per cent year-on-year to 463.3 million tonnes.
DECC said around half of the decrease was due to a warm 2014 relative to 2013, but the remaining half appeared to be the result of the continued deployment of clean energy and energy efficient technologies and a reduction in the use of coal-fired power.
The update includes a number of statistical revisions against the government's provisional estimates, which indicate carbon emissions were slightly higher than first thought in 2014, although overall greenhouse gas emissions were fractionally lower. "The final estimate of 2014 emissions is 516.2 million tonnes, around one per cent lower than the provisional estimate and representing a 7.7 per cent decrease on 2013 emissions," the report said. "The 2014 provisional emissions estimates therefore slightly overestimated the decrease in emissions that is seen in the 2014 final emissions."
The report confirms the energy, transport and business sectors of the economy continue to boast the largest carbon footprints, accounting for 31 per cent, 23 per cent, and 17 per cent of the UK's total greenhouse gas emissions, respectively.
Most parts of the economy saw emissions fall in 2014, with residential emissions falling 17 per cent year-on-year, energy-related emissions falling 14 per cent, waste management emissions falling 11 per cent and business emissions falling three per cent. However, transport emissions rose one per cent year-on-year and agricultural emissions rose two per cent.
The overall reduction in emissions continues a long-running trend, which has seen greenhouse gas emissions fall 35 per cent since 1990 and carbon dioxide emissions fall 29 per cent.
Consequently, the UK has comfortably exceeded its European target to cut emissions by 20 per cent against 1990 levels by 2020 and remains on track to meet its current carbon budget target. "For the purposes of carbon budgets reporting, UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2014 were 455.6 MtCO2e which is 100.8 MtCO2e below the average annual emissions required to meet the second carbon budget (2013-2017)," the report states.
Emission reductions are also expected to be recorded for 2015 with a flurry of recent reports suggesting the clean energy sector smashed output records last year and the government's most recent preliminary data for the first nine months of the year showing emissions fell 2.5 per cent year-on-year, or 4.3 per cent on a temperature adjusted basis.
However, green businesses and NGOs remain concerned the government is currently on track to miss its carbon targets for the mid-2020s. Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd recently announced new policies would be required during this parliament to put the country back on track to meet its goal of halving emissions against 1990 levels by the mid-2020s.
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