- About Policy Connect
- Policy Connect Activities
- National Skills Forum & Associate Parliamentary Skills Group
- Skills Commission
- Higher Education Commission
- Associate Parliamentary Health Group
- Chronic Pain Policy Coalition
- All Party Parliamentary Group on Chronic Pain
- Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group
- Westminster Sustainable Business Forum
- Sustainable Resource Forum
- Carbon Connect
- All Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group
- Carbon Monoxide All Fuels Action Forum
- Associate Parliamentary Manufacturing Group
- Associate Parliamentary Design & Innovation Group
- Contact Policy Connect
Carbon Connect Roundtable: Embedded Carbon under the Spotlight
To get a copy Sara Epple's presentation from this discussion, please email daniel.walker-nolan@policyconnect.org.uk
Next Event: Energy Intensive Manufacturers and Low Carbon Policy, Parliament, 14th December
On 2nd November, Carbon Connect hosted a roundtable discussion in the IPU room of Parliament, gathering parliamentarians, civil servants and industry stakeholders to examine strategies for measuring UK carbon emissions.
The event was kicked off by chair Tom Greatrex MP, new Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change, who said he was keen to learn more about the issue.
Lord Teverson, Liberal Democrat Peer and Spokesperson for Energy and Climate Change, spoke first, outlining the fears of Government about amending the current method for carbon measurement and target-setting.
Delegates also heard that, whilst production-based indicators show a 19% reduction in UK greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between 1990 and 2005, a consumption basis which accounts for GHG emissions of all products consumed in the UK shows a 15% rise in the same period. Lord Teverson criticised this situation, which creates inequality among nations and masks our unsustainable consumption habits.
.png)
Barrett went on to state that long-term investment leakage was a reason given by governments to put off firm action. However, he also argued strongly that there is no evidence of direct carbon leakage (companies leaving the UK due to climate change policies) and that there are promising strategies which legislators and industry stakeholders should consider in the absence of a global agreement on climate change reduction.
Sara Epple, Head of Sustainable Products and Consumers at Defra, addressed the difficulties in developing a new approach to carbon management. Since the UN Framework for Climate Change is predicated on production-based data, Epple said a new framework would mean governments would have to ‘change the whole agreement on greenhouse gas emissions.’ In addition, Epple argued that even the most reliable consumption-based data available—that of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) database, which accounts for trade statistics in 72 countries and 15 aggregated areas—has ‘considerable uncertainties around it’ due to the incorporation of more input data.
.jpg)
The event was kicked off by chair Tom Greatrex MP, new Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change, who said he was keen to learn more about the issue.
Lord Teverson, Liberal Democrat Peer and Spokesperson for Energy and Climate Change, spoke first, outlining the fears of Government about amending the current method for carbon measurement and target-setting.
He went on to propose that governments think more optimistically about new approaches to measuring carbon and setting emissions targets, contesting that, ‘the Kyoto system, regrettably, is not making great progress.’‘We have a Kyoto system and this government’s automatic, reflex reaction [to changing carbon accounting] is to say, ‘No, that’s all based on a different system. That’s the only framework that we have. Anything else risks rocking the boat. It’s too difficult; no one else will agree.’
Delegates also heard that, whilst production-based indicators show a 19% reduction in UK greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between 1990 and 2005, a consumption basis which accounts for GHG emissions of all products consumed in the UK shows a 15% rise in the same period. Lord Teverson criticised this situation, which creates inequality among nations and masks our unsustainable consumption habits.
‘We’re still consuming more than we did and we have the culprit from the other side of the world, the Asian economies, that are effectively feeding our consumer needs.’ Lord Teverson
Breakdown of UK consumption CO2 emissions (2004)
John Barrett, Director at the Centre for Sustainability Accounting, echoed these concerns, citing that of the 10 biggest GHG emitters, the UK is the most extreme example of the gap between production- and consumption-based emissions. He added that there is a 1% growth in consumption-based emissions every year, advocating as a result that indicators be shifted towards consumption-based carbon accounting.
‘If progress is actually climate mitigation and reduction of emissions to meet certain global budgets, then obviously a consumption-based approach gives us a better idea as to whether the economy is geared to deliver a low-carbon future.’
Barrett went on to state that long-term investment leakage was a reason given by governments to put off firm action. However, he also argued strongly that there is no evidence of direct carbon leakage (companies leaving the UK due to climate change policies) and that there are promising strategies which legislators and industry stakeholders should consider in the absence of a global agreement on climate change reduction.
‘There are product roadmaps; there are ways of reducing food waste; there are areas where we try and improve efficiency in other countries and technological transfer and we would suggest that we actually pull together and quantify these benefits to demonstrate that we are affecting these emissions even if we may not directly be doing so.’ John Barrett
Sara Epple, Head of Sustainable Products and Consumers at Defra, addressed the difficulties in developing a new approach to carbon management. Since the UN Framework for Climate Change is predicated on production-based data, Epple said a new framework would mean governments would have to ‘change the whole agreement on greenhouse gas emissions.’ In addition, Epple argued that even the most reliable consumption-based data available—that of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) database, which accounts for trade statistics in 72 countries and 15 aggregated areas—has ‘considerable uncertainties around it’ due to the incorporation of more input data.
UK consumption GHG emissions rose 15% from 2000-2008
Developing policies geared towards companies primarily operating overseas will be a great challenge, Epple said, but Defra has been working with companies in the food and drink sector and home improvement to get ‘a better understanding of their supply chain’ and measure their products’ carbon footprint. By creating the Product Research Forum—to which 80 companies have already registered—Epple said that companies have been able to identify embedded carbon ‘hot spots,’ such as transport or refrigeration, and have been empowered to develop more effective plans for sustainable production.
The meeting also featured a presentation from Kieren Mayers, Head of Technical Compliance at Sony, which showed some surprisingly counter-intuitive facts about energy use with electronics. Mayers said that while it is estimated that the Internet uses half as much energy every two years, downloading larger, high-definition files is not necessarily more energy-efficient than buying a hard-copy disc. In fact, for the foreseeable future while current technology is in use, the carbon emissions associated with playing a 10 gigabyte game from a disk will be 4.5 to 26 times less than emissions from downloading the game.
Mayers ended by stressing the need to contextualise data gathered, ‘we don’t want the wrong assumptions’ adding that ‘the results of carbon footprinting should never be over-generalised,’ as doing so may risk stifling policies intended to tackle consumption-driven carbon emissions.
As the crucial Rio+20 United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development approaches, policymakers and industry stakeholders are critically examining new strategies being proposed to measure embedded carbon. Our delegates joined that debate, discussing the issue of carbon labelling and the difficulty of gathering reliable measurements, as well as its efficacy as a policy tool. Barrett in particular voiced his scepticism, saying it places too much responsibility on the consumer.
The meeting also featured a presentation from Kieren Mayers, Head of Technical Compliance at Sony, which showed some surprisingly counter-intuitive facts about energy use with electronics. Mayers said that while it is estimated that the Internet uses half as much energy every two years, downloading larger, high-definition files is not necessarily more energy-efficient than buying a hard-copy disc. In fact, for the foreseeable future while current technology is in use, the carbon emissions associated with playing a 10 gigabyte game from a disk will be 4.5 to 26 times less than emissions from downloading the game.
Mayers ended by stressing the need to contextualise data gathered, ‘we don’t want the wrong assumptions’ adding that ‘the results of carbon footprinting should never be over-generalised,’ as doing so may risk stifling policies intended to tackle consumption-driven carbon emissions.
As the crucial Rio+20 United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development approaches, policymakers and industry stakeholders are critically examining new strategies being proposed to measure embedded carbon. Our delegates joined that debate, discussing the issue of carbon labelling and the difficulty of gathering reliable measurements, as well as its efficacy as a policy tool. Barrett in particular voiced his scepticism, saying it places too much responsibility on the consumer.
‘What's it asking you to do? Isn't it just placing all the responsibility on consumers to make a better decision? And also in itself what it doesn't do is think about the overall output of the economy. It's simply giving you permission to consume any product on any level.'
To end the discussion, Lord Teverson outlined the need for both production- and consumption-based carbon measurements to ensure the UK’s policies are effectively tackling its global impact on climate change.
‘You cannot have a sustainable development in the UK if you’re destroying the rest of the world, in a very sort of black and white sense. … We can’t have carbon targets, but can have both [measurements].’
Groups:
