UK greenhouse gas emissions to fall 5.4% in 2023, data says
Gas use for power generation to fall 21.1 percent in 2023
UK greenhouse gas emissions are set to fall by 5.4 per cent in 2023, mainly due to a reduction in the amount of gas used in power stations, according to official figures published on Thursday.
The government’s provisional data shows that net emissions of all greenhouse gases were projected to be 384.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2023, compared to 406.2 million tonnes in 2022.
Carbon dioxide emissions fell 6.6 percent annually to 302.8 million tons, accounting for a 52.7 percent reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions since 1990.
The report said gas use for electricity generation fell 21.1 per cent in 2023, “mainly due to higher electricity imports from France as well as continued decline in UK electricity demand”.
It said the decline in demand is mainly due to “improvements in technology resulting in greater efficiency and a decline in the relative importance of energy-intensive industries”.
Higher energy prices are also likely to be a factor, with less fuel being used to heat buildings and industry, the report said.
The share of nuclear and renewable energy in fuel used for electricity generation is expected to be 56.7 per cent in 2023, up from 22.2 per cent in 1990.
Domestic transport remained the largest source of UK emissions, accounting for 29.1 per cent in 2023, almost all of which are from carbon dioxide, the main source being the use of petrol and diesel in road vehicles.
However, the region’s emissions fell by 1.4 percent in 2023, the first decline since 2020 when travel was heavily restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Germany in January projected a 9.8 percent drop in carbon dioxide emissions in 2023 due to a sharp decline in coal consumption and a crisis in its industrial sector.
And France said last week that its domestic greenhouse gas emissions had fallen by 4.8 percent over the same period.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)