County Durham's carbon footprint

This page is about the carbon emissions from the whole of County Durham.

For the carbon footprint of the council and its operations, visit The council's carbon footprint page.

County Durham's carbon footprint is calculated by the UK government at the end of each calendar year. It takes around 18 months for the calculations to be completed for every local authority area in the country, so the most recent data we have is for 2022. The data covers emission of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide and is reported in kilotons carbon dioxide equivalent (ktCO2e). This web page will be updated as soon as possible, following the release of the Government's data each year.

Targets

The Climate Emergency Target for the county is for County Durham to be net zero by 2045. That means that in the year 2045, emissions from County Durham should have been reduced as far as possible and the remaining emissions should be compensated by off-setting activities. Offsetting emissions means working to remove carbon from the atmosphere (e.g. by planting trees) or to remove the need for someone else to produce carbon emissions (e.g. by exporting renewably generated electricity to the grid).

Year	Actual Emissions		Target Emissions
	Footprint (thousand tonnes CO₂)	Reduction (%)	Footprint (thousand tonnes CO₂)	Reduction (%)
1990	4,698	0%
2005	3,503	25%
2020	2,030	57%
2021	2,132	55%
2022	2,007	57%
2030			815	83%
2040			282	94%
2045			0	100%

Carbon footprint 2022

The county wide carbon footprint is now split into seven sections: Domestic (38%), Transport (33%), Industrial (15%), Commercial (7%), Public Sector (4%), Agricultural (2%), and Other Waste (0.02%). Some of these sectors are divided further so that we can determine what proportion of emissions are from heat, electricity, and other sources. The table below shows how the footprint has changed since the baseline year of 1990. In this table Industrial, Commercial, Agricultural and Public Sector emissions have been brought together as "non-domestic".

Annual Carbon Emissions (thousands of tonnes CO₂)

Source of Emissions	1990 (baseline year)	2005 (mid way)	2020	2022 (most recent)
Non-domestic
Heat	1,557	599	365	370
Electricity	1,012	735	192	218
Non-domestic total	2,569	1,334	557	588
Transport
"A" roads	580	403	304	336
Minor roads	130	345	304	315
Other		20	12	13
Transport total	710	768	620	664
Domestic
Heat	860	942	698	615
Electricity	554	456	152	139
Domestic total	1,414	1,398	850	754
Waste		1.7	0.6	0.6
Annual total footprint	4,698	3,501.7	2,027.6	2,006.6

The data in the table shows a reduction from 4,698ktCO² to 2,006.8ktCO² from 1990 to 2022. That's a reduction of 57%. The graph below shows how that reduction has happened since 2005.

Bar chart showing annual emissions and percentage reduction

The chart shows annual carbon emissions from 2005 to 2022. Reduction from the baseline year was 25% in 2005 and progressed to 57% in 2022. The biggest reductions have occurred in the domestic sector, followed by industry and the commercial sector. The following chart shows that in 2022, the county has made good progress on reducing emissions from electricity, so we need to do more work on heat and transport.

The chart shows annual carbon emissions from 2005 to 2022 - data is also available on the web page.

The table below contains all the data used in the chart. All figures are in thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Year	1990	2005 (mid-way)	2020	2021	2022
Heat Emissions		1,542	1,063	1,097	986
Electricity Emissions		1,192	345	381	356
Transport Emissions		768	621	654	665
Waste Emissions		1.7	0.6	0.6	0.6
Total Footprint	4,697.5	3,503.7	2,030.6	2,132.6	2,006.6
Reduction So Far		25%	57%	55%	57%

The biggest individual segment of the county's footprint is domestic heating, which accounts for 31% of the whole of County Durham's carbon emissions. We must work together to reduce these emissions, and all carbon emissions in the county.

Where these emissions come from

Everything we do influences the environment we live in; from heating and lighting our homes to manufacturing goods, scientific research, travel, and everything in between. All our individual actions are responsible for emitting harmful greenhouse gases which together produce a significant overall carbon footprint.

In all our personal lives we generate a carbon footprint by the decisions we make, such as how we heat and power our homes, what food we buy, what we spend our money on, and how we travel. Choosing the low carbon option can make a big difference in the long term.

County Durham receives its carbon footprint data from central Government as ktCO²e, thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. The council reports on the footprint covering emissions within the scope of influence of local authorities as this was previously required for performance reporting against National Indicator 186.

The scope of this footprint includes:

Energy consumption by homes, businesses, industry (includes waste management), farms and the public sector e.g. schools, hospitals etc.
Methane from landfilling of waste (reported within domestic and industrial emissions).
Other Waste - emissions from wastewater treatment, sewage sludge decomposition, composting and anaerobic digestion.
Emissions from road transport (A roads and minor roads), using vehicle composition, fuel consumption and traffic data.

The scope of this footprint excludes:

Large industrial installations
Road traffic passing through on the A1
Rail traffic on the national rail network
Emissions removed or released from habitats e.g. woodlands and peatlands due to land use change
Emissions from agricultural livestock and soils
Renewable energy generated.

To view the full dataset please visit Gov.uk: UK local authority and regional greenhouse gas emissions statistics.