Analysists have warned that 82% of the UK's oil and gas emission reductions have come from "offshoring" production processes.
Research from consultancy Oxera shows the bulk of domestic emission reductions has come through simply shifting the problem abroad and relying in costly imports from the likes of the US and Qatar.
Experts, The Times reports, say this this results in no reduction to global emissions and, in fact, can increase them.
“Policymakers should be mindful that offshoring can not only fail to reduce global emissions but may, in some cases, increase them, both due to the emissions generated by transporting goods to the UK and the potentially higher carbon intensity of production abroad,” Oxera said.
Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce has long called for the government to axe the disastrous Energy Profits Levy and support domestic production in the North Sea.
Backing domestic production rather than imports keeps jobs and tax receipts in the UK and reduces overall global emissions.
Oxera’s analysis covers the period from 2005 to 2022, in which Britain’s annual domestic or “territorial” greenhouse gas emissions fell by 42% — the equivalent of 295 megatonnes of carbon dioxide.
About 14.9 megatonnes of the total — almost 5% — resulted from the offshoring of industrial emissions, Oxera estimated.