SEI report central to new bill on consumer emissions target

Wednesday, 17 February 2010 10:16

High-profile research conducted by SEI and SEI's partner ISA for the UK government reaches the legislative process in the UK.

A Private Members Bill has been put forward in the House of Lords which seeks to put in place a consumer emissions target. The current Climate Change Act which sets an 80% reduction target, only deals with production emissions.

But based on a report to the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), researchers from SEI and the University of Sydney showed the impacts of all the goods and services consumed by British households, including those emissions that occur in countries exporting to the UK, which are usually excluded from standard emissions analysis.

- Accounting for emissions from a consumption perspective provides insight into the global impacts of local consumption and support for the view that in an increasingly globalised market all economies need to play their part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, says Dr Tommy Wiedmann from SEI, who led the study.

Lord Teverson who initiated the bill said: "The Defra report considered the position in the United Kingdom in 2004 and came to the conclusion that the consumption emissions of the United Kingdom economy were some 37 per cent higher than our production emissions."

The UK Parliament website has more information on the Consumer Emissions Bill.