UK politicians hide our total carbon emissions

In debates whilst standing in the local and general elections - and in debates for yrs before then - councillors and MPs have always told me that UK carbon emissions were falling (Kerry McCarthy even sent me a graph in the post). As someone who has worked and campaigned in this area for yrs I've known that this is not the case and have thus argued the toss with people from all the big parties. You can see why the story below might catch my eye then...

BBC News - Openness urged on UK's emissions

The UK government's chief environment scientist has called for more openness in admitting Britain's apparent cuts in greenhouse gases are an illusion.

Robert Watson says that if emissions "embedded" in imported goods are counted, UK emissions are up, not down.

He says the same syndrome is true for other rich nations which offshored manufacturing industry.

That means developing countries - particularly China - are blamed for goods they buy for export to the West.

“We don't have jurisdiction over emissions embedded in imports, they're difficult to calculate accurately”

He said: "At face value UK emissions look like they have decreased 15% or 16% since 1990. But if you take in carbon embedded in our imports, our emissions have gone up about 12%. We've got to be more open about this."...

Click on the BBC link to read more.