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Publication - Statistics

Scotland's Carbon Footprint 1998-2020

Published
21 May 2024
Directorate
Chief Economist Directorate, +1 more … Energy and Climate Change Directorate
Topic
Environment and climate change

Estimates of Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions on a consumption basis for the period 1998 to 2020.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Figure 1: Between 2019 and 2020, Scotland’s carbon footprint (emissions from all greenhouse gases) decreased by 11.5 per cent from 55.1 to 48.8 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2020.

Scotland’s Carbon Footprint, 1998-2020. Values in MtCO2e

Line chart showing a rise from 2001 to a peak of 81.2 MtCO2e in 2007 before falling sharply after 2007 (coinciding with the recession) and, with the exception of 2012 and 2018, has fallen each subsequent year.

Other Key Points

  • Between 2019 and 2020, Scotland’s carbon footprint (emissions from all greenhouse gases) decreased by 11.5 per cent from 55.1 to 48.8 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2020.
  • Between 1998 and 2020, Scotland’s carbon footprint fell by 33.3 per cent from 73.1 MtCO2e in 1998 to 48.8 MtCO2e in 2020
  • Scotland’s carbon footprint rose continuously from 2001 to a peak of 81.2 MtCO2e in 2007 before falling sharply after 2007 (coinciding with the recession) and, with the exception of 2012 and 2018, has fallen each subsequent year. The overall reduction between the 2007 peak and 2020 is 40.0 per cent.

 

These statistics are official statistics. Official statistics are statistics that are produced by crown bodies, those acting on behalf of crown bodies, or those specified in statutory orders, as defined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

 

Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

 

Impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on emissions

2020 covered the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the national lockdowns and travel restrictions. This impacted consumption-based emissions, especially on emissions from transport generated directly from households, which reduced by 24.4 per cent in 2020, and the emissions associated with reduced household spend on air travel, recreation, and restaurants.

 

Revisions to previous estimates of consumption-based emissions.

This release of Scotland’s Carbon Footprint includes a substantial reduction to the absolute value of emissions associated with imported goods and services.  This reflects an improvement to the treatment of taxes and subsidies in the multi-region input output model (MRIO) which is used to derive consumption-based emissions estimates.  Further detail is provided in the section Revisions since the previous Carbon Footprint for Scotland.

 

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank John Barrett, Anne Owen and Jonathan Norman of the Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) at Leeds University for their invaluable support in compiling the figures and for continually improving the methodologies and data used in the Scottish Carbon Footprint statistics release.

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