Written question asked by James McMurdock (Independent (affiliation)) on Wednesday, 3 June 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 8 June 2026. It was answered by Mary Creagh (Labour) on Tuesday, 16 June 2026 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Carbon Emissions: Consumer Goods

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to Answer of 1 June 2026 to Question 4044, how the estimated emissions embodied in imported goods consumed in the UK in 2022 compared with figures for each of the previous ten years.

Answer

The requested information is available in Figure 3 of the annual Carbon Footprint statistics published by Defra here.

Annual totals and year-on-year percentage changes for the ten years up to 2022 are provided below:

Year	Consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions from imports (ktCO2e)	Year-on-year percentage change
2012	372,261
2013	369,664	-0.7%
2014	379,472	2.7%
2015	367,584	-3.1%
2016	399,351	8.6%
2017	371,564	-7.0%
2018	402,261	8.3%
2019	392,401	-2.5%
2020	331,144	-15.6%
2021	375,813	13.5%
2022	403,626	7.4%

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 6655
Session: 2026-27
Related items: Carbon Emissions: Consumer Goods
Monday, 1 June 2026
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects: Consumer goods Imports Carbon emissions
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.parliament.uk