New study identifies which UK regions are winning the race to net zero carbon emissions

The UK regions and nations leading the march to net-zero carbon emissions have been identified in new research.

Research by Utility Bidder on emissions rates across the UK between 2005 and 2017 has found that carbon emissions across the country were slashed by exactly one third.

But, while England and Scotland both reported drops of more than a third Wales and Northern Ireland lagged behind with each reporting falls in CO2 emissions of only around a quarter.

The study will make interesting reading for politicians with the UK Government pledged to bring carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050.

The fall in the number of cars on the road during this year’s lockdown is certain to have cut emissions further, although this is too recent to be reflected in the data.

Researchers used data supplied by local authorities across the UK to contrast carbon emissions in 2005 with the most recent data available, from 2017.

Nationally for the whole of the UK, emissions fell from 527063.8 tons of carbon in 2005 to 351501.3 tons in 2017, a fall of 33.3%.

Scotland was the nation with the greatest percentage drop, cutting its emissions by 34.3% during the period, ahead of England at 33.7%.

Wales and Northern Ireland reported falls in carbon emissions of 25.3% and 24.9% respectively although the rural nature of both nations meant emissions were already low, to begin with.

Within England, there are considerable regional differences with the North East leading the way with a fall of 54.2% making it the only region to half its emissions during the period, a change which may in part be due to industrial closures.

Perhaps surprisingly, Greater London managed to cut its emissions by well above the national average with the study reporting a fall of 36.9% in the capital.

The English regions with the lowest percentage fall in carbon emissions were the East Midlands with a reduction of just 27.7% and East Anglia with a fall of 27.9%.

In terms of our major cities, Sheffield topped the leaderboard with a cut in carbon emissions of 41.6% during the period studied.

Other major cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow all reported cuts in emissions above the national average but Leeds at 31.6% and Belfast at 26.1% lagged behind the UK average.