Slight increase in UK F-gas emissions

UK: The latest government figures show a further increase in UK F-gas emissions, albeit at a reducing rate. 

The figures are revealed in the latest government provisional estimates of 2013 greenhouse gas emissions and final estimates of 2012 emissions by fuel type and end-user.

In 2013, UK emissions of the basket of six greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol were provisionally estimated to be 569.9 MtCO2e. This was 1.9% lower than the 2012 figure of 581.1 million tonnes.

Since 1990, UK carbon dioxide emissions have decreased by around 21%. This fall in emissions has coincided with a decrease in overall energy consumption over the period, of around 4%. If this figure is adjusted to allow for the effect of temperature, energy consumption has fallen by around 9% between 1990 and 2013.

The business sector was responsible for the majority of emissions from F-gases.

While there was an overall 31% decrease in greenhouse gas end-user emissions from the business sector between 1990 and 2011 emissions from F-gases increased significantly. Mainly due to air conditioning and refrigeration, emissions grew from 0.6 MtCO2e in 1990 to 12.4 MtCO2e in 2012. However, the main rise was between 1990 and 2010. Since 2010, emissions have risen by just 0.4 MtCO2e.