§ Mr. WelshTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will set out the monitoring arrangements for levels of greenhouse gas production in the UK. [127147]
§ Mr. MeacherMy Department compiles and publishes an annual inventory of UK greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks to fulfil international reporting requirements of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the European Union Monitoring Mechanism. Separate greenhouse gas inventories are also published for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The inventories are produced according to guidelines published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and conform to internationally agreed good practice.
§ Mr. WelshTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list for(a) Scotland, (b) England and Wales and (c) the UK the changes in the levels of production of the six greenhouse gases in each year since 1990; and what the forecast reduction is for the following 10 years. [127148]
§ Mr. MeacherUK emissions of the "basket" of six greenhouse gases, weighted by their global warming potential (GWP), fell by 8.7 per cent. between 1990 and 1998. UK emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, fell by 7 per cent. over the same period. The changes in the levels of emissions of the six greenhouse gases in each year from 1990 to 1998 for the UK are given in Table 1. 1998 is the latest year for which we have complete data. Disaggregated data are only available for the years 1990 and 1995 for Scotland and England and Wales at present (Table 2) but data for 1998 will be available later this year.
Table 3 shows projected changes in UK emissions of the six greenhouse gases between 1990 (the baseline year for our climate change targets) and 2010, before the impact of the measures set out in the UK's draft climate change programme, published in March. There are currently no disaggregated projections for England and Wales and Scotland although my Department is funding a research contract to provide disaggregated projections of the non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases which will be available later this year.
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Table 2: Greenhouse gas emissions for Scotland and England and Wales, percentage change from 1990 to 1995 Percentage Greenhouse Gas Scotland England and Wales CO2 0.5 -9 CH4 -9.5 -23 N2 -12.5 -17 HFSCs 0 32 PFCs 100 -74 SF6 0 53 Total GWP -0.9 -10
Table 3: Projected greenhouse gas emissions for UK, percentage change from 1990 to 2010 Percentage Greenhouse Gas UK CO2 -7 CH4 -45 N20 -35 HFCs 10 PFCs -83 SF6 35 Total GWP -13