Sustainability Language

Climate & Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Consumption emissions

Greenhouse gas emissions attributed to the goods and services a country or population consumes, wherever in the world those emissions occurred.

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Definition

Consumption emissions allocate greenhouse gas emissions to final consumers rather than producers. A territory's consumption-based emissions equal its domestic production emissions, plus emissions embodied in imports, minus emissions embodied in exports. The approach captures the climate impact of traded goods and complements territorial (production-based) inventories reported under the UNFCCC.

References

Overview

What it means

If a country imports carbon-intensive goods, a consumption perspective assigns those emissions to the buyer's footprint rather than the producer's national inventory.

How it is used

Research institutes (e. g. SEI's work on EU consumption emissions) and policy analysts use the measure to assess carbon leakage, offshored emissions and the fairness of consumption-side policy.

Why it matters

Consumption accounting reveals that many wealthy economies' footprints exceed their territorial emissions, informing debates on trade policy, border carbon adjustments and demand-side measures.

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