Firms urged to address international supply chain emissions

Pressure on firms to assess the carbon footprint of their international supply chains looks set to increase, with the emergence of new evidence suggesting that despite falling domestic emissions of greenhouse gases, emissions associated with imports to the UK are continuing to rise.

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) is to release a new report undertaken for the WWF before the end of the year that is expected to show that the UK's full carbon footprint including emissions from aviation, shipping and imported goods and services is 49 per cent higher than official figures for domestic emissions.

The report follows a similar study carried out for Defra by the SEI, which found that while UK domestic emissions fell five per cent between 1992 and 2004, total UK-related CO2 emissions including those from international transport and net imports rose 18 per cent, largely as a result of the shifting of manufacturing capacity to countries such as India and China.

Robert Watt, communications manager at SEI, said the findings highlighted the case for firms to curb emissions associated with their international supply chains.

"What the research shows is that while western companies importing goods from abroad may be able to reduce emissions domestically, emissions from those imports are almost as big an issue," he said. "We are expecting the issue of embedded or exported emissions to rise up the agenda at the next round of UN climate talks in Poznań, because countries such as China and India are now saying that the west is creating much of their emissions through consumer demand."

A spokeswoman added that the aim of the report was to help inform the international negotiations by highlighting the extent to which the west contributes to developing world emissions. "We need to be clear that we cannot just blame China and India for their rising emissions, when much of it is driven by western consumer demand," she added.

The findings raise the prospect of tighter regulations governing the carbon footprint of international supply chains, but Watt argued that regardless of the prospect of new international legislation there was still a strong commercial case for firms to measure and reduce their imported emissions.

"Essentially, emissions are a by product of waste, so if you are willing to analyse where your emissions are coming from, you can often find areas where you can reduce emissions and that saves you energy and money," he explained. "There is also the possibility that firms producing green products can use information about their supply chain to better market their products."