The West of England Industrial Cluster (WEIC) has conducted its baseline report on industrial emissions in the cluster hub.

The report provides a snapshot of direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by industrial activity in the West of England.

It is the first comprehensive emissions data gathering exercise for the region and is set to be vital in reducing industrial emissions in the years to come.

The cluster hub encompasses the Portbury, Avonmouth, and Severnside (PAS) region and surrounding area.

The PAS region is home to over 1,000 businesses and is a major producer of carbon emissions nationwide.

It is also home to Seabank Power Station, several energy from waste power generators, and a range of large scale renewable infrastructure.

As such, it has an important role to play in meeting the UK’s net zero targets.

The report estimates the verifiable total emissions from the largest emitters in the WEIC hub to be 2.460 million tonnes CO2e per annum, and from its ‘spoke’ sites outside the area to be 4.385 million tonnes.

However, it also identifies challenges due to a lack of robust data to estimate accurately the total emissions of the circa 1,000 SME population at the hub. Based on analysis of secondary data sources, this is estimated to be potentially as high as 18 million tonnes CO2e per annum.

However, further work is needed to improve this estimate which has a substantial margin of error.

The report’s main recommendations centre around the collection of emissions data, including that steps must be taken to ensure better data collection to aid analysis in the future, including more regular emissions capture and more frequent data updates.

It also suggests conducting a Spring 2025 survey, to capture additional data and address existing gaps.

Engagement with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Local service was identified as essential to improving alignment between different emissions data sources both within the WEIC region and nationally.

The report will be used to inform the WEIC Local Industrial Decarbonisation Plan (LIDP) for the West of England, which WEIC was established to create, and which is due to be published early next year.

The WEIC LIDP is a UK Research and Innovation backed project to support industrial hubs across the UK to decarbonise and reduce emissions.

The completion of the WEIC baseline emissions report is a major step towards this and demonstrates the commitment of all businesses in the region to addressing climate and ecological emergencies.