Defra
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) is a governmental department in the UK that is responsible for creating policies and regulations related to the environment, agriculture, fisheries, food, and rural communities. Every year, starting in 2022, Defra releases a database containing greenhouse gas emission factors related to various activities and processes covering all emission scopes.
Some essential features of the Defra emission factor set:
- CO2 per activity unit - factors are expressed in CO2e per activity unit, such as kWh, tons, km, and more. The emission factors are updated annually to stay in line with the latest UK regulations and cover all three scopes of emissions.
- LCA database - Defra is a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) database that covers cradle-to-grave life cycle stages. It draws data from various credible sources, such as official research, industry stats, government publications, and other LCA databases like Ecoinvent.
- GHG alignment - Defra uses Global Warming Potentials (GWPs) from the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) for CO2e calculations over 100 years, ensuring consistency with national and international reporting standards in line with GHG Protocol standards.
- Companies of all sizes - Defra serves UK organizations of all sizes and international entities reporting on UK operations. Despite not operating directly within UK borders, many European and global companies also rely on Defra for emissions accounting.
For the latest updates and information on the dataset, visit www.gov.uk.