Emission statement: quantifying carbon emissions

How do we know how effective our attempts to reduce emissions really are? Many manufacturers are taking steps to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) they produce, even if the main motivation is cutting energy bills. In the UK, we are told that the business sector has reduced its carbon footprint by 30 per cent since 1990, although manufacturing decline probably has something to do with this. But figures such as this aren’t determined by the amount of CO2 actually  in the air, but rather are derived from examining energy consumption. And as carbon emissions trading really begins to affect the industrial  cost of energy, an accurate account of how much CO2 a company is really producing will become vitally important to businesses and regulators.

This is one of the reasons why the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has established the Centre for Carbon Measurement (CCM): to  help develop the science and technology to enable accurate, fair and consistent carbon emissions measurement. Alongside this was the aim  to improve data on climate change itself through better ground- and satellite-based measurement and data analysis. But bringing all of NPL’s carbon-related work together under the banner of the CCM also meant including its efforts to help low-carbon technology manufacturers test and improve their products.