This is a guest post by environmental campaigner Alex Randall. What responsibility should rich countries take for their historical carbon emissions? Should consumption by the wealthy have to be curbed to accommodate the growing consumption of the world”s poorest billion people? These are questions that are not quite answered by the Royal Society”s recent People and the PlanetRead more

Working with leading animator Leo Murray and acclaimed journalist George Monbiot, PIRC is putting together a short, snappy animation to explain the scandal of the UK”s outsourced emissions. The animation forms part of an ongoing project by PIRC to ensure the UK’s outsourced emissions are properly tackled by the Government. Leo Murray is a leading BritishRead more

Defra’s website shows that UK emissions have gone up over the past twenty years. DECC’s website shows that UK emissions have gone down over the past twenty years. Hmm.

The report of the Energy & Climate Change select committee – whose findings we’ve summarised here – has been receiving some good media coverage: MPs warn UK pollution outsourcing – BBC news UK pollution ‘outsourced overseas’ – Independent Britain merely ‘outsourcing’ carbon emissions to China, say MPs – Guardian Climate change targets should include emissionsRead more

Insomniac followers of PIRC may have already caught this, but at around 3am last night Radio 5 live’s programme ‘Up All Night’ featured a slot on the topic of outsourced carbon emissions by Julian O’Hallaran – including some (fortunately pre-recorded) comments by PIRC’s Guy Shrubsole. You can listen again here (relevant programme is 2 hrs 5Read more

This piece originally appeared on Left Foot Forward. The influential Energy and Climate Change (ECC) Parliamentary select committee have today demanded the government take responsibility for the UK’s still-rising emissions, stating Britain “has to address its consumption if it is to make an effective contribution to a global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions”. Whilst on paper, Britain’sRead more

A good piece today by Ros Donald over at Carbon Brief examines the Government’s latest emissions figures. PIRC spoke to Carbon Brief, commenting on the new figures: “It seems like a cop-out on the part of the government given that this research is being done but not publicised or used to drive policy.”

PIRC’s Co-Director Guy Shrubsole has given evidence before a Parliamentary Select Committee on the subject of outsourced emissions. A video of the session held by the Energy and Climate Change (ECC) Committee can be viewed here. A transcript of the session can be read here.