NAEI - UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI), compiled for Defra and DESNZ by Ricardo Energy & Environment

The emission factors of the UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI), the official record of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions, compiled for Defra and DESNZ by Ricardo Energy & Environment. Each factor is the inventory's emissions per unit of activity for one source, fuel and year, from 1990 to 2024.

GovernmentSpecialistOpen licence
Factors
1,755
Values
55,426

One per year and method

Countries
1

1 region, sub-national included

Edition
2026

all versions

Last loaded
27 Oct 2026

Report a newer version

Overview

The NAEI is the inventory the UK reports to the UN climate convention. Its emission factors database publishes, for every source the inventory counts, the emissions per tonne of fuel burnt, per head of livestock, per tonne of product made or per terajoule of energy, year by year.

The factors cover fuel combustion in power stations, industry, homes and transport, fugitive emissions from oil, gas and coal, industrial processes, livestock, manure and fertilised soils, and waste. They are UK-only: NAEI notes that overseas territories and crown dependencies are not included.

At a glance

Publisher
UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI), compiled for Defra and DESNZ by Ricardo Energy & Environment
Kind
Government
Scope
Specialist2 categories each hold at least 5% of its factors; the largest, Direct emissions, holds 73.3%. A generalist needs 4.
Home region
United Kingdom
Edition
2026
Licence
Open licence (ogl-3.0)

What open-climate.ai standardised

over the publisher's own fileHow we standardise

Warming potentials

1,315 factor values recalculated on AR6

0 factor values already on AR6

440 factor values left on the publisher's GWP

5 more things standardised

Audit checks

131 passed3 known limitations3 enforced when loadedlast run 28 Oct 2026

Checks we run on every load to keep the data above trustworthy. Counts are for this library; the grey figure is the same check across all libraries. Point at the i to see why a check matters.

What the statuses meanHow checks are countedWhy we checkHow checks are grouped

Needs attention

  • No default value is withheld for poor quality

    Known limitation · 29 in this library

  • An activity's grouping key names only the activity

    Known limitation · 1 in this library · 12 in all libraries

  • Single-gas values have their AR6 version

    Known limitation · 1 in this library · 9 in all libraries

One category axis

Learn more
  • Every source category maps to our vocabulary

    Enforced when loaded

  • The publisher's classification is kept

    Passed

  • Every classification level has a valid parent

    Passed

  • Every product code comes with the codes above it

    Passed

  • A publisher's own classification is used only by that publisher

    Passed

  • A standard classification code has one label in every library

    Passed

Coded regions

Learn more
  • Every region is a known code

    Enforced when loaded

  • No named region is filed under a broader one

    Passed

  • Every region sits in the world hierarchy

    Passed

Canonical units

Learn more
  • Every unit is a known code

    Enforced when loaded

  • One source unit maps to one unit

    Passed

  • A unit label means the same in every library

    Passed

  • A unit label that names no basis folds one way

    Passed · 2 in all libraries

Declared boundaries

Learn more
  • Every boundary states what it includes

    Passed

  • Boundary scope terms are known codes

    Passed

  • No two factors for the same activity partly overlap in scope

    Passed

  • Separate stages of one activity are linked as parts

    Passed

  • Every part of a factor states its boundary

    Passed

  • Every biofuel counted with its biogenic CO2 says how much

    Passed

  • No recycling credit is hidden inside a life-cycle total

    Passed

  • No burden value hides a credit inside it

    Passed · 217 in all libraries

Warming potentials

Learn more
  • Methane and nitrous oxide figures match the stated GWP

    Passed

  • Every convertible value has its AR6 version

    Passed

  • CO2e totals leave out what their basis excludes

    Passed

  • Values that exclude a carbon pool list the gases behind the total

    Passed · 180,648 in all libraries

  • Standardised figures keep every gas the publisher lists

    Passed

  • Every value states what its CO2e total includes

    Passed

  • A library with no AR6 version at all has a recorded reason

    Passed

Data quality

Learn more
  • Quality ratings fall inside their scale

    Passed

  • Every zero value is explained

    Passed

  • No default value is withheld for poor quality

    Known limitation · 29 in this library

  • No implausibly high per-kilogram value is rated reliable

    Passed

  • Every quality level gives a recognised reason

    Passed

  • A zero that is only a gap in the source is withheld

    Passed

  • The library is not rated entirely on one fallback quality level

    Passed

Languages

Learn more
  • Every factor has an English name

    Passed

  • Translations match the current source text

    Passed

  • Translations follow a corrected source text

    Passed

  • Recorded translations survive a reload

    Passed

  • Every served factor has a name

    Passed

  • Factors are searched on their English name where one exists

    Passed · 26 in all libraries

  • Every language with a main name also has a full name

    Passed

  • Full names are built from their parts in the same language

    Passed

  • Every text is labelled with its real language

    Passed

  • Every description is available for display and translation

    Passed

  • Every usage note is available for display and translation

    Passed

Traceable to the source

Learn more
  • Values traced to one source row agree with each other

    Passed

  • No duplicate factors are served

    Passed

  • No factor value claims two things that cannot both be true

    Passed

  • No energy factor answers a question about packaging or recycling

    Passed · 169 in all libraries

  • No factor value the publisher has withdrawn is still served

    Passed · 14,770 in all libraries

Other checks

  • One activity keeps one family across its units

    Passed · 8 in all libraries

  • An activity's grouping key names only the activity

    Known limitation · 1 in this library · 12 in all libraries

  • A Creative Commons credit names its licence

    Passed

  • No note of ours appears in the credit or licence notice

    Passed

  • The credit line carries no terms of use

    Passed

  • Every part links to a valid parent

    Passed

  • Every impact assessment method is a recognised code

    Passed

  • Summed totals keep their parts' classification

    Passed

  • Every summed total has a classification when its parts do

    Passed

  • Green-electricity zeros are not rated below market-based peers

    Passed

  • An avoided credit is linked to the burden it belongs to

    Passed

  • Every value is typed as specific, generic or average

    Passed

  • The market-based value is the default

    Passed

  • Summed totals equal their parts on every gas

    Passed

  • No total is served when one of its parts is withheld

    Passed

  • Validity dates are the publisher's own, never guessed

    Passed

  • Every district-heat factor says whether the network's heat loss is included

    Passed · 1 in all libraries

  • Quality breakdowns use their scheme's axes

    Passed

  • No battery-electric vehicle carries tailpipe emissions

    Passed · 1 in all libraries

  • The text of each estimated electricity total matches its current figures

    Passed

  • Every estimated factor carries its description in each language

    Passed

  • The text of each estimated factor matches its current figures

    Passed

  • A total built on an estimated part is marked as estimated

    Passed

  • Every estimate is built only from data we may redistribute

    Passed

  • No estimated factor is rated above the data it was built from

    Passed

  • No estimate sits beside a total of unclear scope

    Passed

  • No estimate repeats a stage the publisher's total already includes

    Passed

  • Every factor we complete has all of its estimated parts

    Passed · 25 in all libraries

  • No estimate is served where the publisher printed the figure

    Passed

  • We only estimate for publishers whose rule allows it

    Passed

  • Every estimated factor still matches the inputs it was computed from

    Passed

  • No estimated total competes with a published one

    Passed

  • Every factor with a current value has a default

    Passed

  • Every factor has a value, in a library that publishes values

    Passed

  • The text of each fuel supply-chain estimate matches its current figures

    Passed

  • No fuel supply-chain estimate is rated above what its method allows

    Passed

  • Every fuel estimate is built only from data we may redistribute

    Passed

  • Every fuel eligible for a supply-chain estimate is classified

    Passed

  • No fuel estimate is served where the publisher printed the supply-chain figure

    Passed

  • No supply-chain estimate is served for a fuel we deliberately left out

    Passed

  • Every fuel supply-chain estimate still matches the figures it was computed from

    Passed

  • Per-gas values are in CO2e

    Passed

  • Every tagged gas has a known GWP

    Passed

  • Every fixed group of regions lists what it covers

    Passed

  • Where both exist, the residual mix is shown before the green-tariff zero

    Passed

  • Every green-electricity zero is a market-based value

    Passed

  • Every electricity factor states its mix

    Passed

  • The newest edition of each value is the one marked current

    Passed

  • Every publisher has a rule on whether we estimate its missing parts

    Passed

  • Factor descriptions describe the factor, not the whole library

    Passed · 2 in all libraries

  • Every library's licence has its rights recorded

    Passed

  • No fossil electricity mix has a zero fuel supply chain

    Passed

  • Every green-electricity zero is exactly zero and says why

    Passed

  • Green-electricity zeros cover power generation only

    Passed

  • Only a total we computed may mix GWP vintages

    Passed

  • Spend factors state their price year and basis

    Passed

  • One default value per factor and year

    Passed

  • No electricity or heat factor answers network losses against its stage

    Passed · 3 in all libraries

  • Every value has a number, a GWP version and a reference year

    Passed

  • Only a library cleared for it lists factors without their number

    Passed

  • A published total missing its fuel supply chain comes with a complete sum

    Passed

  • Product footprints headline fossil carbon, like EPDs

    Passed

  • No factor description is too long to display in full

    Passed · 8 in all libraries

  • The library-wide answers on what a factor covers are up to date

    Passed

  • Every library-wide answer applies to at least one factor

    Passed · 5 in all libraries

  • Every excused arithmetic disagreement is stated

    Passed

  • Every reference year falls between 1960 and next year

    Passed

  • Each library's current edition is the one its values come from

    Passed

  • No two editions of a library share a release date

    Passed

  • The parts of a total are never listed twice under one label

    Passed

  • Every residual mix has its green-tariff counterpart

    Passed

  • Every factor points to its top parent

    Passed

  • Every conservative value carries the same label

    Passed

  • Every publisher's quality rating system is read

    Passed

  • Every factor is filed under the most specific category its source allows

    Passed · 5,467 in all libraries

  • Every factor has a category

    Passed

  • Every categorised factor has a GHG Protocol scope

    Passed · 2 in all libraries

  • Single-gas values have their AR6 version

    Known limitation · 1 in this library · 9 in all libraries

  • No factor answers a question that does not arise for it

    Passed

  • No part is larger than the total it belongs to

    Passed

  • A supplier named in the source is linked to the factor

    Passed

  • No factor is an unlinked part of another factor

    Passed

  • A part covering the same scope as its total is linked to it

    Passed

  • Every device total that includes its use also gives the manufacturing share (embodied emissions)

    Passed · 112 in all libraries

  • No plug-in vehicle supply-chain estimate is rated above what its method allows

    Passed

  • A year in a factor's name matches its reference year

    Passed

How the audit works

What can I do with this data?

Open licence · credit the publisher

Your rights

Open licence · ogl-3.0
Use it to calculate my own footprint
Yes
Publish my footprint results
Yes, if
  • you credit the publisher
  • you imply no endorsement by the publisher
Share the file with my customers
Yes, if
  • you credit the publisher
  • you imply no endorsement by the publisher
Put the factors in a product I sell
Yes, if
  • you credit the publisher
  • you imply no endorsement by the publisher
Modify it or combine it with my own data
Yes, if
  • you credit the publisher
  • you imply no endorsement by the publisher

Named licence, checked on 20 Jul 2026

OGL v3.0: "You are free to copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Information; adapt the Information; exploit the Information commercially and non-commercially", acknowledging the source; no suggestion of official endorsement.

Credit line

(c) Crown 2026 copyright Defra and DESNZ via naei.energysecurity.gov.uk, licenced under the Open Government Licence (OGL). Normalised by open-climate.ai, https://open-climate.ai/factors/libraries/naei_uk/ (CC BY 4.0)

Not legal advice: the publisher's terms prevail.

Full terms

How to read these answers

Coverage

What the library covers, by category and by boundary. Click a slice to drill in, then a sub-category or a boundary to filter the factors below.

By category

Direct emissions: 1,287Fuels: 447Waste treatment: 19Land use and removals: 2
1,755factors

Click a slice to see what is under it. A name opens its category page; its swatch hides it from the ring.

By boundary

Direct only: 1,736End of life / waste: 19
1,755factors

Click a slice to see what is under it. Click a name to hide it from the ring.

Browse factors

top 0 matches

SavedUnfoldFactorRegionBoundary
Unit
VersionPublishedLoadedStatusSource
2026–27 Oct 2026ServedSource

Methodology

How this works
  • Totals are kg CO2e with IPCC AR5 100-year GWPs. The export does not name the GWP set; we solved it from the file, where every methane leg is 28 times its mass and every nitrous oxide leg 265 times.
  • The total counts fossil CO2, methane, nitrous oxide and the fluorinated gases. Biomass fuels are printed with methane and nitrous oxide but no CO2, so biogenic CO2 is not in the totals.
  • The CO2, CH4, N2O, HFC, PFC, SF6 and NF3 contributions are kept on the same value as the total. A factor whose only fluorinated leg is an HFC or PFC basket cannot be restated on another GWP set.
  • NAEI prints emissions in kilotonnes. Every value is turned into kg per canonical unit at fixed ratios: per terajoule (net calorific value) is served per kWh, per kilotonne or megatonne per kg, per thousand head per head, per hectare burnt per square metre. Gas oil burnt in 2024, printed at about 0.0749 kilotonnes of CO2 per TJ, is served at about 0.270 kg CO2 per kWh.
  • NAEI states that its method is not the product of a factor and an activity. A factor is the inventory's own emissions for a source divided by the activity it records for that source.
  • No electricity, heat or price-based factor is published, so no grid mix or price basis applies.
  • The reference year is the inventory year of the value.

Data year: the inventory year the factor was compiled for, one value per year 1990 to 2024, all from the 2026 submission. No validity window is printed.

What we import

  • The greenhouse gas export of the emission factors database, every sector, 1990 to 2024: 1,784 factors and 62,057 yearly values.
  • A factor is one inventory source code, source name, fuel and activity unit, as printed. Its years are its values.
  • By sector: agriculture 834 factors, energy 473, industrial processes 444, waste 19 and memo items 14.
  • Each factor carries its UNFCCC reporting code (NFR / CRT, one level, as printed) and our activity category. The source name and the fuel name are the factor's names.
  • Boundaries: direct process emissions (880 factors), combustion (454), fugitive (431) and end of life (19).
  • Not imported: rows with no activity unit, which are national totals rather than factors (the whole land use and forestry arm among them), per-person rows, and rows whose unit is ambiguous ("tonne units", "millions"). Each excluded row is kept in our archive with its reason.

Open. NAEI publishes the data under the Open Government Licence v3.0, which allows commercial use, adaptation and redistribution with attribution: "© Crown 2026 copyright Defra & DESNZ via naei.energysecurity.gov.uk, licenced under the Open Government Licence (OGL)."

What can I do with this data?

Credit line: (c) Crown 2026 copyright Defra and DESNZ via naei.energysecurity.gov.uk, licenced under the Open Government Licence (OGL).

ogl-3.0

Limitations

  • The factors describe UK practice: its fuels, its plant, its herds and its soils.
  • Each factor is an inventory average over a whole source, not a measurement for one site or product.
  • NAEI publishes no quality rating. We rate agriculture and accidental fire factors medium and every other factor high; 24,798 values are high, 30,628 medium. How quality tiers are set.
  • A zero is served only where a source has no such emission in any year, for example enteric methane from poultry. A zero printed for a year in which the source had no activity, such as field burning after its 1993 ban, is withheld: 6,631 values.
  • Some sources are missing, or confidential, in the publisher's database.
  • Only the 2026 release of the database, covering 1990 to 2024, is loaded so far.

Changelog

  • 2026-10-27: 1990 to 2024 inventory loaded. Facts last verified against the NAEI site the same day.

Highlighted factor pages

A selection of NAEI factors, with each value, boundary, source and derivation.

Know a newer edition?

If NAEI has published an edition we do not serve yet, tell us where to find it.