A Greenhouse Footprint Analysis of UK Central Government (1990 to 2008)

This paper presents the results of a study that established a complete account of scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions associated with UK Central Government activities from 1990 to 2008. This is the first study of its kind where a national government has published a time series of its total greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint. The work is unprecedented in detail, completeness and robustness with respect to GHG accounting as well as relevance for policy making. We present and discuss the results by type and origin of GHG, by GHG Protocol scope, by Central Government activity, by broad product category and by detailed commodity groups. Also for the first time, this paper presents a full carbon footprint estimate of defence activities in the UK from 1990 to 2008. Environmental inputoutput analysis was used as the calculation method in this study.