A report written by Dr Dominic Hogg has been published, entitled “Problems in the Reporting of GHG Emissions from ‘Waste’: Indicators and Inventories”. The report explores the question of actual emissions from waste, against the current inventory of emissions from waste based on Defra definitions.

There is a particular focus on the accounting methods for waste incineration, where all emissions from energy generation are ignored. Following the recognition by the Committee on Climate Change that emissions from the incineration of waste should be included in the waste sector, even when producing energy, Dr Hogg outlines three shortcomings which have led to a restricted view of the emissions reductions the waste sector could deliver:

• Reporting of the effects of recycling on territorial emissions;
• Reporting of the carbon sequestration in soils associated with the land application of waste-derived soil improvers;
• Lack of modelling of emissions based on waste incineration feedstock quantities any emissions which aren’t explicitly reported.

Read the report in full here.