We commend the Energy and Climate Change Committee for addressing the important issue of the
off-shoring of consumption-based emissions which has long played a distorting role in the attempt
to make serious progress in tackling the global threat of climate change. Green House is convinced
by the key finding of the 2006 report from the Carbon Trust that 'Consumer purchasing decisions are
the ultimate driver of carbon emissions  in an economy. All carbon emissions can be attributed to
the delivery of

 products and services to meet the needs of the consumer'.


The Kyoto Treaty established a process of measuring emissions based on nation-state boundaries,
which encouraged many companies to move their operations from countries with a serious approach to
CO2 emissions (such as the UK) to countries which were more prepared to be lax, an example of the
so-called 'race to the bottom'. This way of measuring carbon also enabled governments in
high-consuming countries to avoid the difficult process of engaging with their citizens on the
issue of their high-carbon lifestyle. But if we are to make serious progress in tackling climate
change then these debates need to be had and citizens need to learn to live within carbon budgets
based on a model of global equity such as the Contraction and Convergence model.


Three reports that have identified problems with the current methods for measuring CO2 emissions:


Christian Aid (2007) Coming Clean: Revealing the UK’s True Carbon Footprint:
http://www.christianaid.org.uk/Images/coming-clean-uk-carbon-footprint.pdf

Worldwide Fund for Nature (2006), Counting Consumption, 2006:
http://www.wwf.org.uk/filelibrary/pdf/countingconsumption.pdf

Carbon Trust (2006), The Carbon Emissions Generated in All that We Consume (London: Carbon Trust).

Contraction and Convergence: http://www.gci.org.uk/contconv/cc.html