DEFRA factor set

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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.

The DEFRA emission factor set is included 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 from the DEFRA website.

Note:

When a new set of factors is published, publication from the previous year terminates on 31st December. When an update is made to the factor set in July or August, all data that has been captured since the end January is updated to use the new factors.

While it is advised to follow the guidance provided in the DEFRA publication, if you prefer you can use custom factors for the gap period between the end of the last publication and today.

Table 1. Summary of the DEFRA factor set
Element Description
Website Government conversion factors for company reporting of greenhouse gas emissions
Upcoming publication date Publishes annually every July. Latest publication date: July-2024
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 localised factors do not exist. Contact the support team for more information.
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 including:

  • water supply
  • water treatment
  • material use
  • waste
  • business travel by air, land, and sea
  • freighting goods
  • hotel stays
  • electricity from managed assets
  • well-to-tank (upstream and downstream) emissions from Scope 3 activities

Note: Well-to-tank emissions are calculated, which are visible in the Emissions Performance Dashboard and categorized as ‘lifecycle emissions’ in the grid. Lifecycle emissions can also be extracted by using the Monthly Data Summary Report.
Effective and published dates

In accordance with the guidance that is provided within the factor set, the factor effective period is set to the published period. This period is January to December.

If you require a custom period for your factors, manage them as custom factors.

For more information about effective and published dates, see Assigning factors.

Guidance from the DEFRA factor set: You should use the version of the factors that correlates with the data on which you are reporting (for example, factors labelled as 2021 should be used for data from calendar year 2021).

Managed publications and effective periods

Table 2. 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 Dec 2010 Same as effective Same as effective
2011 Guidelines to Defra/DECCs GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting. 01 Jan 2011 31 Dec 2011 Same as effective Same as effective
2012 Guidelines to Defra/DECCs GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting. 01 Jan 2012 31 Dec 2012 Same as effective Same as effective
2013 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. 01 Jan 2013 31 Dec 2013 Same as effective Same as effective
2014 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. 01 Jan 2014 31 Dec 2014 Same as effective Same as effective
2015 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. 01 Jan 2015 31 Dec 2015 Same as effective Same as effective
2016 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. 01 Jan 2016 31 Dec 2016 Same as effective Same as effective
2017 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. 01 Jan 2017 31 Dec 2017 Same as effective Same as effective
2018 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. 01 Jan 2018 31 Dec 2018 Same as effective Same as effective
2019 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. 01 Jan 2019 31 Dec 2019 Same as effective Same as effective
2020 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. 01 Jan 2020 31 Dec 2020 Same as effective Same as effective
2021 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. 01 Jan 2021 31 Dec 2021 Same as effective Same as effective
2022 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. 01 Jan 2022 31 Dec 2022 Same as effective Same as effective
2023 UK Government conversion factors for Company reporting. 01 Jan 2023   Same as effective Same as effective