Emissions in the UK: 2022 DEFRA Spend-Based Updates

Summary

• What the 2022 DEFRA Spend-Based Emissions Factor Update says about the UK's Emissions
• Emissions factors help convert spending into carbon estimates, essential for accurate carbon footprinting across sectors.
• DEFRA’s 2022 update introduced major changes due to new methodologies, reshaping how emissions are calculated in key industries.
• Emissions increased sharply in sectors like cement, electrical equipment, and wholesale trade due to revised data inputs.
• Significant reductions occurred in metals, oil and gas, and waste services thanks to cleaner practices and better emissions tracking.
• Staying up to date with evolving emission factors is crucial for businesses aiming to meet carbon reporting and reduction goals.

What the 2022 DEFRA Spend-Based Emissions Factor Update says about the UK's Emissions

The conversation around environmental sustainability and reducing carbon footprints has never been more critical. One of the essential tools in this dialogue is the concept of emission factors, which play a pivotal role in assessing and managing emissions. In this article, we’ll explore what emissions factors are, their significance and the recent changes in the UK’s spend-based emissions.

What Are Emissions Factors?

Emissions factors, also known as “conversion factors”, are numerical values used to convert quantities of one unit into another. In the context of carbon emissions, these factors translate various activities, such as energy consumption or transportation, into an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.

Let’s say you want to calculate the emissions associated with a £1.50 soft drink purchase. Conveniently for us, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has an emission factor for the average soft drink of 0.565 kgCO₂e per £. So, we can simply multiply the two and work out that the footprint of your soft drink was 0.847 kgCO₂e.

This allows organisations and individuals to estimate the environmental impact of their actions in a standardised and comparable way.

What Are They Used For?

Emissions factors are essential for measuring and reporting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. They are used in carbon accounting, helping organisations understand their carbon footprint and enabling them to set and achieve reduction targets.

For instance, DEFRA’s spend-based emission factor for wearing apparel reflects the average carbon intensity per pound spent on UK clothing -accounting for the energy, materials and transport embodied in each garment. While the factor for building construction captures the CO₂e per pound of construction activity, combining emissions from cement, steel and on-site energy use. These spend-based factors allow you to compare the carbon impact of different purchases directly and make more informed decisions about where to allocate budgets to achieve the greatest emissions reductions. 

How Are They Calculated?

Emissions factors are typically calculated by governmental or environmental bodies using comprehensive data on energy consumption, vehicle efficiency, waste processing, and other relevant metrics. In the UK, DEFRA provides annual updates to these factors based on the latest research and data. The calculations involve assessing the carbon content of fuels, the efficiency of energy use, and the emissions associated with different activities.

DEFRA Conversion Factors

Since 1997, DEFRA has published annual spend-based emission factors covering UK activities, with the latest 2022 update now available via the UK’s Carbon Footprint statistics. These factors enable organisations and individuals to calculate greenhouse-gas emissions from a wide array of expenditure categories, for example:

• Manufactured Goods
• Raw Materials
• Business & Professional Services
• Retail & Trade
• Public & Education Services

Several factors can influence annual changes to these conversion factors, including changes in technology and updates in methodological approaches.

The 2022 update to the UK emissions data has highlighted some significant changes in various scopes and categories. Let's explore some of the most noteworthy shifts.

Figure 1: Greenhouse gas emissions associated with UK consumption 1996 to 2022 - gov.uk

Top Changes in UK Goods

1. Scope 3 - Cement, lime, plaster and articles of concrete, cement and plaster: Significant increase in emissions by 119.24% owing to a methodology shift in the cement and concrete emission factors. A major methodology revision in reallocated process CO₂ from kiln calcination and updated clinker CO₂ capture assumptions. Although the UK cement sector is piloting carbon capture (e.g. at the Whitehaven plant), increasing use of low-carbon blended cements (like fly ash and GGBS), and trialling hydrogen fuel in kilns, these innovations still represent <10 % of national output.
2. Scope 3 - Electrical equipment: Significant increase in emissions by 115.05% due to a methodology shift as the manufacturing Emission Factor includes integrating new UK-specific data on sheet-metal stamping, PCB assembly and high-voltage testing energy use. UK electrical-equipment factories are investing in in-house solar and battery storage, electrified material handling and waste-heat recovery; however, only ~20% of plants have adopted these measures so far.
3. Scope 3 - Other basic metals and casting: Emissions have decreased significantly by 81.12% due to a methodology update that re-based the aluminium-and-zinc allocation on UK scrap rates and upgraded energy-intensity benchmarks for electric-arc melting. UK foundries are increasingly using recycled metal (especially aluminium), shifting to EAF smelting and installing induction-furnace heat recovery.  
4. Scope 1 & 3 - Crude petroleum and natural gas: Emissions have decreased by 65.36% following DEFRA’s incorporation of updated fugitive‐emissions measurements and global Brent‐average intensity data. North Sea operators have been cutting methane leaks through enhanced leak-detection surveys and electrifying offshore platforms from shore power; meanwhile, decommissioning of older fields has reduced high-intensity wells.

Top Changes in UK Services

1. Scope 3 - Wholesale trade services, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles: Major increase in emissions by 17,335.33% driven by a major methodology overhaul, which re-allocated upstream trade “brokerage” emissions from transport lines into this sector and incorporated full supply-chain logistics factors. UK wholesalers are increasingly digitising ordering systems (reducing paper use, but increasing data-centre energy), and trialling local consolidation hubs to cut transport miles, yet the full logistics footprint remains large under current spend-based accounting.
2. Scope 3 - Services of households as employers of domestic personnel: Emissions increased significantly by 253.47% following DEFRA’s inclusion of household energy and travel emissions for domestic staff, whereas previously only direct wages were captured. Many UK households now employ nannies and carers using agency schemes, which can reduce individual travel emissions via shared-ride pooling, but overall home-service footprints have grown as more people return to offices and require in-home support.
3. Scope 3 - Travel agency, tour operator and other reservation services and related services: Emissions have increased by 52% owing to updates to the “tourism services” Emission Factor, adding embedded emissions from hotel-booking platforms, digital operations and upstream airline commissions. UK agencies are pushing “carbon-neutral” booking tools and promoting lower-carbon destinations, but digital-platform energy use and the embedded emissions of ticketing systems now feature more prominently in spend-based totals.
4. Scope 3 - Remediation services and other waste management services: Emissions have decreased by Down 94.44% after DEFRA re-classified hazardous‐waste incineration emissions under “energy recovery” and updated site-energy benchmarks for soil-washing and bioremediation. UK waste-management firms are scaling up in-vessel composting and low-temperature thermal desorption, and investing in electric‐powered machinery, further reducing non-incineration emissions in this largely services-based sector.

Conclusion and Takeaways

Understanding and utilising emission factors is essential for accurate carbon accounting and effective emissions management.

Yet we know that keeping pace with annual updates—especially when factors swing by triple-digit percentages—can overwhelm even the most seasoned sustainability teams. 

Related article

DEFRA GHG Emission Conversion Factors Updates 2024

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