Question
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will ask the Office for National Statistics to produce a time series of the statistical relationship between gross domestic product growth and emissions of carbon dioxide. [HL6080]
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Jil Matheson, National Statistician, to Lord Lea of Crondall, dated November 2009.
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking for a time series of the statistical relationship between gross domestic product growth and emissions of carbon dioxide (HL6080).
ONS Environmental Accounts produce estimates of air emissions, including carbon dioxide annually.
The ONS Environmental Accounts measure greenhouse gas emissions on a UK resident basis, in order to be comparable with National Accounts economic data. Therefore, they include emissions generated by UK residents in the UK and emissions from UK residents’ transport and travel activities abroad. They exclude emissions generated by non-residents' transport and travel in the UK.
As such, these data are on a different basis from estimates published by the Department for Energy and Climate Change under the UK’s Kyoto Protocol obligations. The Kyoto Protocol basis covers emissions from UK territory only and excludes emissions from international aviation and shipping.
The most recent publication was on 12 June 2009 and statistics for the period 1990 - 2007 are available on the National Statistics website at the following address.
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/focuson/environmental/.
Consistent with this publication, the annex presents an index of carbon dioxide emissions created per unit of output by the UK economy (excluding households) between 1990 and 2007.
Index of carbon dioxide emissions created per unit of outputby the UK economy (excluding households) between 1990 and 2007 Year Index of CO2 emissions per unit of output1 1990=100 1990 100.0 1991 101.3 1992 98.4 1993 92.7 1994 87.3 1995 84.4 1996 84.3 1997 79.0 1998 76.8 1999 72.5 2000 71.5 2001 71.8 2002 68.3 2003 68.6 2004 67.2 2005 66.5 2006 63.7 2007 61.1
Source: AEA Energy and Environment, Office for National Statistics
1 Output is based on the chained volume measure of Gross Value Added, the contribution of individual industries to Gross Domestic Product.