Dr Dominic Hogg left Eunomia, which he founded in 2001, last October and now runs another consultancy called Equanimator Ltd (see letsrecycle.com story).
Today (11 February), Equanimator published a report highlighting the “problems” with the way greenhouse gas inventories are reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Defra has developed indicators to help track the performance of its Resources and Waste Strategy, one of which tracks territorial greenhouse gas emissions from waste management.
Dr Hogg’s report claims the indicator is “inadequate” as it only reflects emissions from landfilling and composting.
However, a spokesperson for Defra told letsrecycle.com that the issues raised in the report fell outside the scope of Resources and Waste monitoring and “would not be appropriate to include in this particular metric”.
Emissions
Dr Hogg’s report claims the indicator omits both emissions from facilities that incinerate waste whilst generating energy and those resulting from the incineration of waste exported to countries outside the UK.
The indicator also omits any reductions in emissions that may be associated with recycling of waste and any benefits that may be attributable to sequestration of carbon in soils, Dr Hogg says.
The report proposes that Defra “reformulates” the indicator and notes that the UK, as COP President, is “uniquely well-placed” to begin a “much-needed” overhaul of the existing approach that countries use to report their greenhouse gas emissions to the UNFCCC.
‘A poor indicator’
Guidelines developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the 1990s specify that if a waste management facility generates energy, its emissions are not reported under ‘waste’ section headings but ‘energy’, Dr Hogg says.
The Defra indicator is a poor indicator
- Dr Dominic Hogg
As such, Dr Hogg claims Defra’s reporting only reflects emissions from landfilling and composting.
Dr Hogg said: “The Defra indicator is a poor indicator. It doesn’t reflect the impact of waste management on climate change.
“It only reflects the change in greenhouse gas emissions coming from what is included in the ‘waste’ section of the UK’s inventory. The two things are completely different.
“This is reflective of a far bigger problem at the global level related to the way in which ‘waste’ emissions are reported under the UN Framework Convention.
“Taking such a partial view of waste management will lead policy-makers to the wrong decisions.
“Our indicators and inventories make policymakers indifferent to recycling plastic waste instead of incinerating it, even though the switch can reduce emissions by 4 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per tonne of plastic.”
‘Not appropriate’
The Defra spokesperson told letsrecycle.com: “The Resources and Waste Monitoring report reflects the greenhouse gas emissions for the waste sector as set out in the UK government’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
“The areas referred to fall outside this scope and would not be appropriate to include in this particular metric.
“However, the same report also presents emissions related to the UK’s overall carbon footprint, which captures all territorial emissions and emissions associated with consumption, including from imports.”
Related link
Problems in Reporting GHGs from Waste
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