The consumption emissions of many developed countries including the UK are significantly larger than their territorial emissions – the focus of international mitigation commitments.

The paper presents the development and application of a multiregional input–output based scenario tool to explore the impact of carbon reduction measures on territorial and consumption emissions.

Applying the tool to estimate the effect of current UK government’s mitigation plans demonstrates that coupled with expected growth in the economy and population, ceretis paribus, territorial emissions would reduce by ∼40% by 2030 and consumption emissions would increase by ∼14%.

The analysis puts the UK’s own reduction efforts in the context of its wider emissions responsibility, highlighting the significance of carbon embodied in goods imported from non-Annex B countries.