The Climate Data Gap

Credit: ClimateClock.world

The climate data gap: Why the government is 18 months behind — and what’s really happening now. 

The UK Government has to act fast both nationally and locally to hit the country’s commitments to reducing carbon emissions, according to the independent Climate Change Committee. Tracking our progress has to keep pace with these expectations or else all current improvements are hidden from view by late reporting. 

Currently, Government emissions data is released 18 months late. The most recent data, which corresponds to the local greenhouse gas emissions across the UK in 2023, was released one week ago (27 June 2025). This data, released by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) – the best, most robust and objective data on local greenhouse gas emissions we have and that everyone should be using – is already 1.5 years old when released and 2.5 years out of date at the time of the next update. 

Carbon Copy has summarised this data by industry sector for every local authority area in the UK, to make it easier and more accessible to identify the biggest emitters locally. This summary information is available via the local emissions pages on our website. Carbon Copy’s Ric Casale added:   

“Knowing what’s happening right now is really important to our ability to make informed decisions. With the current lag in local emissions data, changemakers across the UK who want to move forward are looking backwards at data that’s two years out of date on average. 

We’ve gathered all current, publicly available climate and nature action plans produced by local authorities across the UK and published them alongside the local emissions data, as well as the progress against these plans as reflected in the latest 2025 Council Climate Action Scorecards. 

We know that the majority of local authorities want to act faster in doing the work they know their residents want, and most have a target of becoming net zero by 2030, but it’s hard to keep up momentum when there’s an 18-month lag on seeing results.”  

One place where it is possible to take a real-time pulse check on place-based progress is Carbon Copy’s coverage of 25 Big Local Actions in 2025. The groundswell of climate action revealed through anecdotes, collaborations and innovations provides the evidence we are looking for now and the data for the 2025 DESNZ report published in 2.5 years’ time.