Thursday 7 July 2016

UK sees lowest emission levels since 1990

Greenhouse gas emissions have fallen to their lowest level since 1990.

A report published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also shows energy consumption from renewable and waste sources reached a record high in 2014, accounting for 7.1% of total energy consumption.

The amount of resources consumed per person is shown to have fallen 30.4% between 2000 and 2014.

It shows UK woodland provided the equivalent of £5.6 billion of ecosystem services in 2014.

Environmental Protection Expenditure stood at £15.4 billion in 2014, accounting for 1.9% of total government spending.

The report shows a continuing trend of road transport fuel switching from petrol to diesel. Between 2013 and 2014, diesel use increased by 3.3% whereas petrol use decreased by 2%.

Richard Tonkin, Assistant Director for Sustainability and Environment at the ONS, said: “We can see that greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by 28% over the last 25 years, driven by reductions in emissions from the manufacturing and energy supply, water & waste sectors. This trend continued between 2013 and 2014, largely due to reductions in carbon dioxide and methane emissions in the energy supply, water & waste sector."