The UK is required to report its estimated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on a range of different bases (territorial, residence and footprint) to fulfil a wide range of international agreements as well as for domestic policy making purposes. The three key official measures of UK GHG emissions, territorial, residence and footprint, are explored and defined below.

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body providing science-led comprehensive assessments of climate change science, found that climate change is already happening, with global surface temperatures between 2001 and 2020 around 1°C higher than during 1850 to 1900, and that this is having effects across the world and in the UK including making extreme weather events more likely.

Providing services — including financial, legal and communications services — tends to emit fewer greenhouse gas emissions than manufacturing goods such as petroleum products, iron, steel or concrete.