territorial emissions

Territorial emissions are the greenhouse gases released within a country's own borders: from its power stations, road vehicles, homes, farms, factories and landfill sites. This is the measure countries report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and it is the one their headline climate targets are written against.

The measure has deliberate boundaries. It excludes emissions from international flights and shipping, which the UK reports separately, and it excludes emissions released abroad while making goods that are then imported. It does include emissions released at home while making goods for export.

Because of those boundaries, the UK also publishes two other measures. A residence basis counts emissions caused by UK residents and businesses wherever they occur. A consumption basis, the UK carbon footprint, follows the goods and services UK households buy back through every stage of their supply chains, wherever in the world those emissions happen. The Office for National Statistics publishes a comparison of all three.