377,680 kt
UK emissions in 2020
CO2, CH4 and N2O
(kt CO2 equivalent)
8,639 kt
North East emissions
2.3% of the UK total
(kt CO2 equivalent)
23%
Lower emissions
in the North East per head (4.3t) in 2020, compared to UK (5.6t).
56% decrease
in North East
CO2 emissions
between 2005 and 2020
16.5%
of England's CO2 removal
by forestry in 2020
was in the North East
Total greenhouse gas emissions in the UK decreased by about 41% between 2005 and 2020. There was a 43% reduction in CO2 emissions, compared to a 33% reduction in emissions from other greenhouse gases. Trends in CO2 emissions continued to drive overall UK trends but the proportion of emissions from CO2 fell slightly, from almost 82% in 2005 to just over 79% in 2020.
The total in the UK emissions dataset is slightly larger than combined emissions for all UK subnational areas in the regional dataset. The latter omits fluorinated gas emissions (about 3% of the UK total) and also excludes emissions that cannot be allocated to a part of the UK. Examples are emissions from exports, shipping, aviation and military transport. There are also small differences due to variations in methodology. In 2020, the UK emissions total excluding fluorinated gases was about 15,600 kt higher than the total of emissions allocated to all regions and nations.
Emissions by sector
Published regional and local emissions data is broken down by sector of end use. The broad sectors include those relating to industry, commerce, domestic use, the public sector and transport. There is also net emissions data from the land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector. This includes activities that reduce emissions through the absorption of carbon, such as forestry and conversion of crop to grassland use. However, LULUCF also includes activities that increase emissions, such as conversions of land to crop or settlement use and, therefore, net LULUCF emissions can be negative or positive, depending on the balance of activities in a particular year or area.
Because time series data for other greenhouse gases is unavailable, the first chart in the carousel shows CO2 emissions from 2005 to 2020, broken down by broad sector. In the latest year, the domestic sector produced more CO2 emissions in the North East than any other broad sector. Transport produced the second highest total, having been highest in the previous four years. Together these two sectors produced two thirds of the net total of North East CO2 emissions in 2020, with LULUCF producing negative emissions, due to the effects of forestry.
Between 2005 and 2020, net CO2 emissions in the North East decreased by 56%. The largest percentage decreases were in industry (down 79%) and the commercial sector (down 67%), while, in contrast, transport CO2 emissions decreased by just 28%. By indexing the data (as in the second chart) particularly large annual decreases in North East emissions can be highlighted, most notably in the industry sector in 2012 and 2013 and in the transport sector in 2020. The former is likely to be the result of the closure of specific sites of large industrial emissions, while the latter highlights reduced travel as a result of Covid. The indexed data also shows a larger than average drop in emissions in most North East sectors in 2009 due to recession.
As the third chart shows, the inclusion of methane and nitrous oxide in the latest data allows the impact of agriculture, landfill and waste management on North East greenhouse gas emissions to be more fully measured for the first time. The detailed sector data in the chart also highlights that domestic gas use and road transport were particularly large contributors to emissions in 2020.
Compared to England excluding London, in 2020 the North East had higher percentages of greenhouse gas emissions from the domestic, agricultural and public sectors and lower percentages from the transport, industry, commercial and waste management sectors. The fourth chart in the carousel also shows comparisons with the seven other core city LEP areas, with the North East's proportions of emissions from domestic and agricultural sectors being the highest of the eight. Within the North East, the 2020 percentages of emissions from the transport, domestic, industry and agriculture sectors were, respectively, highest in Gateshead, South Tyneside, Sunderland and Northumberland.
Emissions by area
Within the North East, about 31% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 were in County Durham as the first chart in the carousel highlights. The second highest local authority area total was in Northumberland (16%), despite this being the only area with significant negative LULUCF emissions due to the impact of forestry. Northumberland had the highest combined CH4 and N2O emissions but ranked second lowest for CO2 emissions only.
The second chart shows changes in local CO2 emissions between 2005 and 2020. In six of the seven North East local authority areas, levels decreased by a similar percentage (45% to 49%). The exception, Northumberland, experienced a much larger percentage decrease (86%) with much of the fall in a single year (2013) when North East emissions from industry also dropped sharply, suggesting an impact from the closure of specific sites in Northumberland.
Comparisons of emissions from specific areas can be made using per head and per km2 rates. In both cases (the third and fourth charts in the carousel), CO2 emission rates have been lower in the North East than in England and England excluding London throughout the 2005 to 2020 period. The gap is larger for the km2 rate because the North East has a lower population density than nationally.
Among the eight core city LEP areas, the North East had the joint third lowest rate of greenhouse gas emissions per head in 2020 (the fifth chart in the carousel). The rate was lower than that of England excluding London. The North East's rate of CO2 emissions was the lowest among the core city LEP areas but CH4 and N2O emissions were the highest, mainly due to higher levels of agricultural emissions. The North East rate of non-CO2 emissions was similar to the England excluding London rate.
The percentage decrease in CO2 emissions between 2005 and 2020 in the North East (56%) was much larger than nationally and the largest among the eight core city LEP areas. Although the large North East decrease was driven by an 86% drop in Northumberland, the percentage decrease in all other North East local authority areas was also larger than the national decrease (both including and excluding London).
CO2 emissions removal by forestry
Published emissions data includes some sectors with negative CO2 emissions, where CO2 removal takes place alongside CO2 emission, with the volume of the former being larger than that of the latter. By far the most prominent sector with negative CO2 emissions is forestry (the others are grassland and wetlands).
In 2020, forestry in England was responsible for the net removal of almost 8,500 kilotonnes of CO2 and 16.5% of this total was due to forestry within the North East LEP area. Most of the removal within the North East was in Northumberland, which was responsible for 14.6% of the England total and had more than four times the level of CO2 removal of any other unitary or district local authority area. Total net CO2 removal due to forestry in the North East has decreased in each of the last six years and the latest total is only 78% what it was ten years earlier.
Looking forward: Trajectory to Net Zero
The Tyndall Centre has developed an interactive tool which enables the user to specify a local authority, or group of local authorities, and identify an emissions trajectory which aligns with the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. This enables the allocation of a ‘carbon budget’ representing the volume of CO2 emissions which would represent a fair contribution to global Net Zero progress under the terms of the agreement. The tool is based on provisional emissions data for 2018 and therefore does not reflect the most recent statistics.
For the North East LEP area, the tool estimates that the recommended energy only CO2 budget (reflecting a ‘fair’ contribution to the agreement) should be 62.9 Mt for the 2020 to 2100 period. This equates to consistent annual emission reduction rates of 12.7%. The tool also estimates that, at 2017 CO2 emission levels, this budget would be exceeded within seven years of 2020. The budget excludes the impact of land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF).
The chart shows actual annual CO2 emissions for the North East LEP area for 2010, 2015 and 2020 and annual levels reflecting a constant 12.7% annual reduction over the following 30 years. This is chart differs from that provided by the Tyndall Centre in that it starts from actual 2020 emissions data.
About the data
This section aims to review a range of available sources of regional data currently available and makes comparisons with national performance and with other similar parts of the UK. Emissions data for all seven greenhouse gases[1] is only available for the UK and the devolved administrations (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales). It is provided by the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI)[1] and published as a national statistics summary by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). This annual dataset does not include estimates at a regional or local authority level.
The regional and local emissions data produced by BEIS[2] was for carbon dioxide (CO2) only until the latest estimates (for 2020). The release now include emissions of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) for the first time. Unfortunately, full historic data for these two gases is only available back to 2018 so a longer local and regional time series only covers CO2. At the start of this time series (2005), just over 80% of the UK's total emissions were CO2 emissions so the regional trends data presented here provides an incomplete picture[3].
The local statistics combine information from the NAEI national and devolved administration level dataset with statistics from other sources. The estimates use an “end user basis” for calculations, where emissions are distributed to sectors and locations according to the point of energy consumption (or point of emission if not energy related). Except for the energy industry, emissions from the production of goods are assigned to where the production takes place. Therefore emissions from the production of goods which are exported out of the area will be included, and emissions from the production of goods which are imported are excluded.
There are some limitations in the local data. These include electricity sales that cannot be allocated to specific local authorities due to lack of information; road transport emission estimates that rely on national road traffic estimates, with distribution of traffic on minor roads imputed at local level from regional data; and some local emissions data from smaller emission sources largely estimated from proxy information such as population or employment data.
- ^ Devolved Administrations - Greenhouse Gas Reports, National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory. Available here.
- ^ Note that the national data shows that the non-CO2 contribution to total greenhouse gas emissions is between 18 and 21% over the period 2005 to 2020 and follows a similar trend to that of CO2 emissions. Therefore, whilst regional data is CO2 only, trends in CO2 reflect trends in total GHG emissions.