UK producing more emissions

THE UK’s level of greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2010, the first increase since 2003, figures have confirmed.

Final estimates for 2010 from the Department of Energy and Climate Change showed that greenhouse gas output rose by more than 3 per cent, largely due to an increase in gas use for heating homes during the very cold weather. The rise was also partly driven by firms switching away from nuclear to coal and gas for generating electricity.

Carbon emissions, which make up most of the UK’s greenhouse gases, rose by almost 4 per cent in 2010 after a sharp fall in emissions in 2009 in the face of the economic downturn.