London’s consumption based greenhouse gas emissions 2001-2020

London’s wider greenhouse gas impacts

Tackling London’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a huge challenge. The impact of these emissions goes far beyond the city’s boundaries. From the electronics we buy and the food we eat to the clothes we wear, most are produced and transported globally. Understanding emissions related to these consumption patterns can help us better understand and plan to reduce London’s wider carbon footprint.

The Mayor, together with London Councils and ReLondon, has jointly commissioned Leeds University to develop a historic trend of consumption-based emissions for London. It uses the latest available data (running from 2001-2020) on average expenditure on different types of goods and services. This methodology aligns with what the national government uses at the UK level.

Key Findings

London’s consumption-based emissions in 2020 were around 71 MtCO ₂ e. They’ve fallen by 32 per cent since 2001, despite the city’s population increasing by almost 1.5 million over that time. This means emissions per head have reduced by 43 per cent (from 13.9 to 7.86 tCO ₂ e per person). The biggest drop was between 2008 and 2009 during the global financial crisis. Post 2009, emissions stabilised then steadily reduced from 2014 to 2020, bar a small increase from 2017-2018. This period of emissions reduction has been mainly driven by decarbonisation of the UK electricity sector.

 London’s footprint

A detailed technical report is hosted on the London Councils website , and this includes household emissions profiles for each of the London boroughs for the period 2001-2020. Every London borough saw a reduction in their total emissions over this period, and in every borough the sectors with the largest impact were housing, transport and food.

The national context

London’s per capita consumption-based footprint is close to the UK average. It also follows a similar trend in reduction over the same period. However, at a sector level there are some cases where the per capita emissions for Londoners are different, for example:

·      Transport – London’s use of transport is unlike any other region in the UK. Private transport emissions are much lower than any other region, and public transport emissions are the highest in the country. As a result, London has the lowest per capita emissions of any region and is lower than the UK average. However, London also has one of the highest per capita aviation emissions. Transport emissions were unusually low in 2020 due to the COVID-19 restrictions.

·      Housing, water, electricity, gas, other fuels – Compared to other regions in the UK, Londoners spend less on heating and power. This is a function of increased household occupancy rather than lower energy bills and more efficient homes. The average London per capita housing emissions in 2020 were almost exactly the same as they were in 2019.

·      Food and drink – Compared to other regions in the UK, Londoners spend less on meat, which contributes to a lower food footprint per capita. The per capita emissions associated with Greater London’s spend on food were almost exactly the same in 2020 as they were in 2019.

 The international context

The Mayor wants to recognise the full environmental impact of London’s consumption by publishing this data. We hope this will encourage more cities to publish their consumption-based emissions data so we can identify similarities and work together to bring these emissions down. London has also been engaged with C40 in this area through a joint pilot project with New York City on actionable data indicators on consumption-based emissions profiles. A report on this project can be found here.