Rick M |
Carbon accountants out there might be interested to hear that the latest official conversion factors and methodology were published 6/8/10. DEFRA recommends these for personal CO2 emissions accounting and its what I use as carbon accountant for Sheffield CRAG.
Go to www.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/reporting/
then from the grey side menu “Greenhouse gas (GHG) conversion factors”
DEFRA revise the figures at least annually and they are the best source I know of.
I found the level of detail a bit overwhelming the first time I saw this stuff, but with repeated reading I have found what I think is relevant.
Relaxations used by Sheffield CRAG:
(a) I don’t recalculate CO2 from members electricity use when more up to date “5 year grid rolling average” figures become available. I have used the latest figure available at the time of the carbon year in question. So, for 2010, this would be the average emissions for the 5 years 2004-2008 given in Annex 3, Table 3c, cell I148.
(b) When the CRAG started, DEFRA only published CO2 emissions. I did not include the CO2 equivalent of methane and dinitrogen oxides when DEFRA introduced these in the 2009 edition.
Its not just the data that gets revised each year, the range of things covered has increased and methodology has changed / improved. Important Changes from the previous edition are summarised in the Introduction.