Leading Non-Governmental Organisations have responded positively to the report published yesterday (18 April) calling for more Government openness on the impact that UK consumption is having on the climate.

WWF has said that reporting of consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions should sit alongside, but certainly not replace, the existing approach to measuring emissions.

Commenting on the Energy and Climate Change Committee’s report on consumption-based emissions, Keith Allott, head of climate change at WWF-UK, said that the UK has “a huge responsibility to show leadership” on the issue, arguing that it is “not credible for the UK to claim progress towards a sustainable, green economy” unless the impacts of both UK territorial and consumption emissions were addressed together.

Mr Allott said: “However you measure the UK’s emissions, it’s clear that a lot more needs to be done to reduce them – through improving energy efficiency and decarbonising the power sector through renewables, and also by reducing and managing our consumption.

“Addressing consumption is the nettle that successive governments, worried about how voters will react, have refused to grasp. The evidence suggests, however, that consumption-based emissions reporting can be used to engage people, to change behaviour, and to help people make better decisions about how we consume."

Andrew Pendleton, Head of Campaigns for Friends of the Earth, has called for a requirement from firms to reveal the impact of their products on the climate.

"One of the main reasons why nations such as China have soaring carbon emissions is because they are making goods to sell to rich Western countries - this report highlights the UK's role in creating this pollution,” he said.

"The Government can't continue to turn a blind eye to the damaging impact that our hunger for overseas products has on our climate - we need to tackle the problem, not shift it abroad.

"Ministers must come up with a strategy to ensure we cut all the emissions pumped out on our behalf - beginning with a requirement on firms to reveal the real climate impact of all their products.

"Far more must also be done to reduce the damage our purchasing choices have on all the planet's precious resources, such as forests and water - the impact of UK consumption goes far wider than just climate change."