Managed Emission Factors - DEFRA
The UK Government and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) publishes a comprehensive set of GHG emission factors covering Scope 1, 2 and some Scope 3 emission sources. This factor set applies mainly to the United Kingdom but many organizations have chosen to apply this factor set across their European sites, particularly with emissions resulting from air travel.
Envizi has managed this factor set since 2009. This factor set has been published consistently since it was originally created back in 2002. The factor set contains the 3 individual GHG gases for fossil fuel sources and CO2e for all other sources.
This factor set also provides a useful summary of changes every year with guidance. To review annual changes you can download the publication for each year by visiting the website.
Website | Government conversion factors for company reporting of greenhouse gas emissions |
Upcoming publication date | Publishes annually every July. Upcoming publication date: 31-July-2023 |
Geographical coverage | By default factors are applied to Europe for Scope 1 and 2. Global for Air travel and some other Scope 3 factors. Note, this factor set can be set as a global default to apply when other more localized factors do not exist. Contact Envizi Help Desk to arrange this. |
Data type coverage | Publications exist for every year from 2002 to the present. Scope 1: fossil fuels, biofuels, refrigerants, passenger and delivery vehicles (distance based) Scope 2: UK electricity, UK electricity for electric vehicles, heat and steam Scope 3: upstream and downstream emissions resulting from Scope 1 and 2 emission sources and…
Note that Envizi calculates well-to-tank emissions and these are visible in the Emissions Performance Dashboard and categorized as ‘lifecycle emissions’ in the grid. Lifecycle emissions can also be extracted using the Monthly Data Summary Report. |
Effective and Published dates | Due to guidance provided within the factor set Envizi has set the factor effective period to be the same as the published period. This period is Jan - Dec. For more information on effective and published dates see this article. If you require a custom period for your factors this will need to be managed as custom factors. Guidance from the DEFRA factor set:
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Managed publications and effective periods
Factor Source reference | Effective From | Effective To | Published From | Published To |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2010 Guidelines to Defra/DECCs GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting. | 31/12/2010 | 31/12/2010 | ||
2011 Guidelines to Defra/DECCs GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting. | 1/01/2011 | 31/12/2011 | 1/01/2011 | 31/12/2011 |
2012 Guidelines to Defra/DECCs GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting. | 1/01/2012 | 31/12/2012 | 1/01/2012 | 31/12/2012 |
2013 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. | 1/01/2013 | 31/12/2013 | 1/01/2013 | 31/12/2013 |
2014 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. | 1/01/2014 | 31/12/2014 | 1/01/2014 | 31/12/2014 |
2015 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. | 1/01/2015 | 31/12/2015 | 1/01/2015 | 31/12/2015 |
2016 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. | 1/01/2016 | 31/12/2016 | 1/01/2016 | 31/12/2016 |
2017 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. | 1/01/2017 | 31/12/2017 | 1/01/2017 | 31/12/2017 |
2018 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. | 1/01/2018 | 31/12/2018 | 1/01/2018 | 31/12/2018 |
2019 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. | 1/01/2019 | 31/12/2019 | 1/01/2019 | 31/12/2019 |
2020 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. | 1/01/2020 | 31/12/2020 | 1/01/2020 | 31/12/2020 |
2021 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. | 1/01/2021 | 31/12/2021 | 1/01/2021 | 31/12/2021 |
2022 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. | 1/01/2022 | 1/01/2022 |
When a new set of factors are published, the previous years' publication will terminate on 31-December. Once the update is made in July or August, this will cause all data captured since the end January to be updated to use new factors.
While it is advised to follow the guidance provided in the DEFRA publication, if this is not preferable then you can use custom factors for the gap period between the end of the last publication and today.