Greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions - The Herefordshire Partnership

Greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions

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The release of greenhouse gases (GHG's) into the atmosphere, as a result of human activity, is considered to be responsible, at least in part, for global warming. Carbon dioxide (CO2) whilst not the most potent GHG accounts for around 80% of GHG's produced nationally. The majority of CO2 emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels in their various forms, a result of individuals and organisations requirements for energy. In recent years increasing emphasis has been put on the role of local and regional government in effecting reductions in energy use and therefore CO2 emissions. It is for this reason that local estimates of GHG's particularly CO2 are of increasing interest.

Data at local authority level for Herefordshire comes from two main sources:

1. Herefordshire Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2002 produced by Herefordshire Council's Sustainability Unit; and

2. End user CO2 emissions estimates for 2005 produced by AEA technology on behalf of Defra.


The data set produced for Defra has been developed specifically for use as a national indicator so can be compared easily with other areas but does not include other GHG's so will not represent some sectors well. In the case of Herefordshire this is true for agriculture. It is for this reason that data from the Herefordshire Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2002 has been included for comparison.

The data produced for Defra has been adopted by the Herefordshire Partnership as a performance indicator as part of the Local Area Agreement (LAA). The baseline figure for Herefordshire is shown in the indicator summary below. Information on National Performance Indicators (external link).

Source - Defra, ONS Crown Copyright

For the purposes of performance management and to make absolute values of CO2 emissions comparable over time and between areas, values of per capita emissions are used (Table 1). This gives the amount of CO2 emissions in tonnes per head of population (tonnes CO2/cap). In 2005 per capita emissions in Herefordshire were 9.4. This is high compared to the West Midlands region (7.3) and the UK as a whole (7.6).

Herefordshire has similar per capita emissions to Shropshire (9.3) and Powys (10.5) but higher than Gloucestershire (7.7) and Worcestershire (7.2). When looking at the sectors that contribute to this i.e. 'Industry and Commercial', 'Domestic' or 'Road Transport' it is the latter that shows the greatest contrast between Herefordshire and comparator areas. Unsurprisingly it is the more rural authorities, such as Herefordshire, Shropshire and Powys that have greater per capita emissions from transport, 3.4, 3.5 and 4.4 respectively, compared to the West Midlands region (1.8) and the UK as a whole (1.9). Both the other sectors have similar per capita emissions for all comparator areas.

Table 1 Per capita emissions by sector, Herefordshire and comparator areas 2005

Source - Defra, ONS Crown Copyright

A detailed sector breakdown for the three sectors in table 1 is also provided (see data download). When looking at the per capita emissions in the 'Industrial' sector there are no major differences between Herefordshire and the West Midlands and the UK as a whole. In the 'Domestic' sector, emissions from electricity and oil use are high and emissions from gas use are low in comparison to the West Midlands and the UK as a whole. This reflects a lack of infrastructure in more rural parts of Herefordshire, which limits the use of gas over other forms of energy. All sub-categories in the 'Road Transport' sector have higher emissions than in the West Midlands and the UK.

As mentioned previously the data produced for Defra does not include all GHG emissions. In particular it does not include Methane (CH4) emissions that typically account for a high proportion in the agricultural sector and so are of particular importance in Herefordshire. In the Herefordshire Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2002 emissions from agriculture accounted for around 40% of Herefordshire's GHG emissions compared to only around 7% for the UK as a whole. It is largely for this reason that the proportion of GHG's emissions in Herefordshire that are CO2 (60%) is lower than for the UK as a whole (80%). For more detail please see Herefordshire Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2002 (download available below).

For information on Herefordshire's Climate Change Strategy please visit Herefordshire Council's climate change page.

If you would like to calculate your carbon footprint you can do it at myherefordshire.com.