Britain’s emissions of greenhouse gases have risen by almost a fifth over the past two decades, rather than falling as the Government claims, according to a report by Oxford academics.

The report, Too Good To Be True? The UK’s Climate Change Record, by a team of economists led by Dieter Helm at Oxford University, says that official figures fail to capture the true picture because they don’t take into account pollution from aviation, shipping, overseas trade and tourism or the carbon footprint of Britons abroad.

According to figures filed with the UN, Britain’s emissions are down 15 per cent compared with 1990. But the report says that the figure is actually up by 19 per cent once the missing emissions from shipping and citizens abroad are included.

The analysis, which the compilers said needed more research and assessment, claims that the country is responsible for hundreds of millions more tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions than officially admitted.

BACKGROUND

• UN chief to return to Bali climate talks

• Al Gore: free of diplomatic niceties

• Al Gore lambasts US climate obstructions

• Scorching decade claims eight hottest years

2007: worst year for the environment

As UN climate talks go down to the wire, scientists across the world says 2007 was a 'year of worsts' for the planet

• This decade breaks records in table of world's hottest years

BACKGROUND

• US rejects Bali climate change guidelines

• UN chief: act now on climate or face oblivion

• Al Gore calls for climate ‘mobilisation’

• Carbon emissions are 'higher than claimed'

• A convenient £50m for green Gore

Multimedia

• Video: protests in Bali

• Video: Going green with God

• The environment - 2007 in pictures

BACKGROUND

• Carbon stand-off puts climate talks at risk

• US 'must change lifestyle' for planet's sake

• Woodman, spare that high-carbon tree

• Act now or prepare for disaster

US laws will sap Europe’s energy

There is a serious danger that the politics of the American cornfield are again threatening trade and development

BACKGROUND

• Water shortages 'likely trigger for wars'

• Global crisis reveals big cracks in policies

• UN climate circus rolls in on CO2 cloud

• Carbon Trust not meeting the challenge

We’re not doomed yet

Should we really be listening to the views of one man just because they are eye-catchingly more dramatic than the consensus?

BACKGROUND

• Brown’s bid to seal fate of carrier bags

• Opec ponders wealth of alternatives

• Climate change panel verdict: the future is bleak

• A global warning for UN chief

It will embarrass British negotiators at an international gathering in Bali who are trying to persuade countries including the US and China to agree a new treaty to limit the effects of global warming.

The report says that the claimed cut in greenhouse gas emissions “may have been to a considerable degree an illusion”. Mr Helm said that the exclusions led to “an artificial picture”.

Times recommends

• Energy-saving ideas from switched-on professor
• Rooks are as clever with tools as chimpanzees
• Burping of the lambs blows roast off menu