Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department monitors the amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted by importing minerals such as (a) clay, (b) chalk, (c) limestone and (d) coal to the UK; and if he will make a statement.

The UK is an Annex I party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC adopted the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/) for Annex I countries in Decision 24/CP.19. The UK is thus required to make use of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines in the compilation of the UK’s greenhouse gas inventory. The guidelines define national greenhouse gas inventories as including only emissions which take place within each country’s territorial boundary. Consequently emissions associated with importing minerals from territories outside the UK are not included.