2. Things you need to know about this release

Air emissions accounts (AEA) record flows of gaseous and particulate materials emitted by the economy into the atmosphere. The air emissions accounts can be used to measure the intensity of emissions across the economy as a whole or within particular industries. Emissions intensity is measured as the level of emissions per unit of economic output (constant price level).

Estimates of figures on greenhouse gas emissions intensity are part of the UK Environmental Accounts, which are “satellite accounts” to the main UK National Accounts. The environmental accounts show how the environment contributes to the economy (for example, through the extraction of raw materials), the impact that the economy has on the environment (for example, energy consumption and air emissions) and how society responds to environmental issues (for example, through taxation and expenditure on environmental protection).

The UK Environmental Accounts are based on a UK residency basis (as opposed to a territory basis) so emissions that UK residents and UK-registered businesses are directly responsible for, whether in the UK or overseas, are included in these estimates, while emissions from foreign visitors and businesses in the UK are excluded. This is in line with national accounting principles, allowing environmental impacts to be compared on a consistent basis with economic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP). In terms of air emissions, it allows the calculation of emissions intensity.

UK figures for air emissions on a territory basis are published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The emissions bridging tables illustrate the difference between these estimates for 1990 to 2016; bridging data are not yet available for 2017. Further explanation of the differences can be found in the article Alternative approaches to reporting UK greenhouse gas emissions (PDF, 253KB).

The data for 2017 are provisional; details of the methodology used can be found in the Quality and methodology section.

This section includes analysis by Standard Industry Classification 2007: SIC 2007. To simplify, within the text:

the electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply sector is referred to as the energy supply sector

the transport and storage sector is referred to as the transport sector

the water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities sector is referred to as the water supply sector

Greenhouse gas intensity cannot be calculated for consumer expenditure so this is not covered in this bulletin. However, it should be noted that in 2017 greenhouse gas emissions related to consumer expenditure were higher than for any industry. Figures of greenhouse gas emissions for consumer expenditure can be found in the Atmospheric emissions: greenhouse gasses dataset released alongside this bulletin.