Environmental scientists create model to help organisations quantify their greenhouse gas emissions

The proven impact on the climate of greenhouse gases (GHG) requires significant changes. Environmental scientists at Lancaster have produced a rigorous environmentally extended input-output (EEIO) model to quantify GHG emissions and support organisations in setting targets to reduce them.

The model has been used by affiliate company Small World Consulting Ltdto support more than 70 organisations, from multinationals to local businesses, to quantify and reduce their GHG emissions. Lancaster’s model allows any organisation to understand and quantify their emissions and set targets. UK policy on GHG emissions reporting was influenced by submissions to the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee and public understanding of GHG emissions has also been increased.

Public literacy around climate change has been increased via three popular science books (100,000 books sold), 100 radio and TV appearances, including ‘Climate Change - The Facts’ presented by Sir David Attenborough on BBC One TV (16.6 million viewers), and over 100 educational events. ‘The Burning Question’ was endorsed by Al Gore as “Fascinating, important and highly recommended”. Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, described ‘There Is No Planet B’ as “a lively and cogent assessment of what is happening to the Earth’s biosphere”.

• Using Lancaster’s EEIO model BT has committed to reducing their “supply chain GHG emissions by 29% by 2030”. BT’s Annual Report 2019 highlights that: “we reduced our total end-to-end worldwide CO2 equivalent emissions by 7.4%”. This target is in line with limiting temperature change to 2oC (Paris Agreement, 2015).
• Microsoft also drawing extensively on the EEIO model has committed to reducing their total emissions to net zero by 2030.
• The Lake District National Park set a carbon budget and used the EEIO model to track its GHG emissions for eight years. This ‘Low Carbon Lake District’ project formed part of the organisation’s successful UNESCO World Heritage Site application. The modelling is now being used to set emissions targets for all the UK’s National Parks.
• Professors Berners-Lee and Hewitt and others at Lancaster University modelled the impact of dietary change through an extensive analysis of global nutritional flows from field to fork as well as using Small World Consulting Ltd’s mapping of supply chain emissions supermarket chain EH Booth & Co and the EEIO model. They showed that GHG savings of 22% and 26% are made by changing from a typical diet to a vegetarian or vegan diet respectively.
• Berners-Lee and Hewitt gave evidence from three cases that had used the model (West Sussex County Council, the Lake District National Park Authority and Manchester City Council) to the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee. Supermarket chain E.H. Booth & Co Ltd gave written evidence, based on a report by Berners-Lee. Following this the UK Government enacted legislation requiring mandatory reporting of GHG emissions by the UK’s largest companies.