UK carbon emissions figures 2010 - Greenpeace response

Reacting to the publication of UK carbon emission figures for 2010, Dr. Doug Parr, the chief scientist for Greenpeace, said:

“Climate-changing pollution should be falling, not going up – so what these figures show is that the UK is moving in the wrong direction. Politicians can’t blame it on the beginnings of the economic recovery because whilst the economy has grown slowly, carbon emissions have grown faster.

“A struggling economy and rising carbon emissions are exactly the conditions that require significant levels of green investment that can boost the economy, create jobs but simultaneously cut pollution. That’s why it’s worrying that in the last twelve months clean energy investment here has fallen by 70%. Ministers urgently need a plan to turn things around.”

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main greenhouse gas, accounting for about 84 per cent of total UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2009, the latest year for which final results are available.

In 2010, UK net emissions of carbon dioxide were provisionally estimated to be 491.7 million tonnes (Mt). This was 3.8 per cent higher than the 2009 figure of 473.7 Mt.