Category Carbon Omissions

The upcoming IPCC Fifth Assessment Working Group 2 report will cover outsourced emissions: “A growing share of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion in developing countries is released in the production of goods and services exported, notably from upper-middle-income countries…

If our carbon emissions are falling, it means we’re on the right track, right? And we’ve done it without needing to drastically change our economics (or even our lifestyles). But what if our accounting systems are wrong?

This is a guest post by environmental campaigner Alex Randall. What responsibility should rich countries take for their historical carbon emissions? Should consumption by the wealthy have to be curbed to accommodate the growing consumption of the world”s poorest billion people? These are…

Working with leading animator Leo Murray and acclaimed journalist George Monbiot, PIRC is putting together a short, snappy animation to explain the scandal of the UK”s outsourced emissions. The animation forms part of an ongoing project by PIRC to ensure…

Defra’s website shows that UK emissions have gone up over the past twenty years. DECC’s website shows that UK emissions have gone down over the past twenty years. Hmm.

The report of the Energy & Climate Change select committee – whose findings we’ve summarised here – has been receiving some good media coverage: MPs warn UK pollution outsourcing – BBC news UK pollution ‘outsourced overseas’ – Independent Britain merely…

Insomniac followers of PIRC may have already caught this, but at around 3am last night Radio 5 live’s programme ‘Up All Night’ featured a slot on the topic of outsourced carbon emissions by Julian O’Hallaran – including some (fortunately pre-recorded)…

This piece originally appeared on Left Foot Forward. The influential Energy and Climate Change (ECC) Parliamentary select committee have today demanded the government take responsibility for the UK’s still-rising emissions, stating Britain “has to address its consumption if it is to make…

A good piece today by Ros Donald over at Carbon Brief examines the Government’s latest emissions figures. PIRC spoke to Carbon Brief, commenting on the new figures: “It seems like a cop-out on the part of the government given that this…

PIRC’s Co-Director Guy Shrubsole has given evidence before a Parliamentary Select Committee on the subject of outsourced emissions. A video of the session held by the Energy and Climate Change (ECC) Committee can be viewed here. A transcript of the…

Professor John Barrett from Leeds University has written a great take-down of the Government’s latest claims to have cut Britain’s carbon footprint. Barrett should know: he’s authored many of Defra’s own papers into the subject of outsourced emissions.

PIRC has submitted written evidence to the Energy and Climate Change (ECC) Committee’s inquiry into consumption-based emissions reporting. You can read our submission online here.

PIRC has produced a briefing paper – Outsourced emissions and global trade in the green economy – for the Global Transition Dialogues, a set of high-level debates being organised in the run-up to the Rio+20 Earth Summit. The paper was…

Fresh analysis from US academics tracks the flow of emissions embedded in international trade. Duncan Clark assesses the data.