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Climate gap report: consumer goods

Collage of photos of tech equipment, clothes and furniture

Rob Harrison and Ruth Strange discuss the findings around consumer goods from Closing the Climate Gap 2024: An annual report on progress towards sustainable consumer lifestyles in the UK.

Actions taken this decade will be crucial in mitigating the worst impacts of climate breakdown. Yet, according to our Climate Gap research, we are not cutting emissions fast enough across any of our key lifestyle areas - including consumer goods such as clothing, furniture and electrical items.

Consumer goods and climate change

Our consumer goods account for 10% of our total consumer emissions.

For this area of consumption we look at emissions from consumer goods, purchases of secondhand good and repairing of products, and supply chain carbon reporting by companies.

A key finding of the report was that it is not possible to manage an economy rationally towards urgent climate goals without meaningful and timely performance data. The broad area of consumer goods is particularly patchy for reliable and recent data. 

Disappointingly, the data indicate that the estimated carbon footprint from consumer goods is increased by 14% in 2021 from the previous year. This is likely to be telling us little more than that the pandemic lockdowns reduced people’s ability to buy consumer goods, and without more up-to-date information we don't know the current trend.

Emissions reporting by companies

Of the 40 companies we check each year for full Scope 3 emissions reporting, which includes the production and processing of materials going into products and the use of products after sale, the proportion reporting rose from 70% to 80%.

Of those that had year-on-year Scope 3 figures to compare, more were now going down (20 companies) than up (10 companies).

Graph of emissions from consumer goods - data in the report
Graph showing carbon emissions from consumer goods

Repair, reuse and buying secondhand

This year we evaluated what data we were using, and due to concerns with previous sources, we are now using data mainly from market research companies’ estimates of market size and from WRAP and the ONS.

Our results appear to show that around 19% of clothes sold (by weight) in 2022 were secondhand, and that around 24% of electrical goods sold (by sales value, including phones, computers and washing machines) were secondhand too. Although this appears quite positive, it is only six years now to increase this to meet our target of 52%.

We call on consumers to not only reduce their own emissions in these areas, but to also consider getting engaged with political campaigns trying to persuade the government and companies to take some of the actions identified too.

Actions for government, companies and consumers

The report card below summarises key actions consumers, governments and businesses need to take in order to help meet the CCC's 2030 targets.

Consumer goods report card 2024
  Carbon footprints of clothing, furniture and electrical goods Supply chain carbon reporting Consumer repair and re-use
Actions for government Collaborate on carbon pricing internationally; invest in more timely data collection. Require supply chain (scope 3) carbon reporting annually. Extend repairability obligations.
Actions for companies Decarbonise supply chains;
design lower impact product lines; support the Climate & Nature Bill.		 Report supply chain emissions annually; reduce in line with Paris goals; subscribe to Ethical Consumer! Design for repairability; price spare parts fairly; join the Wellbeing Economy Alliance.
Actions for consumers Try to reduce overall levels of consumption where possible; support Extinction Rebellion. Choose brands reporting on carbon in their supply chains; support the Climate & Nature Bill; subscribe to Ethical Consumer! Choose secondhand products and repair; support the Restart Project; support Transparency's work.

Access the 2024 Climate Gap report

A summary and PDF of the 2024 report and the other impact areas is available on our campaign page.

The reports include the evidence behind all the information.

At a glance graphs

The 2024 report includes 12 graphs, like the consumer goods emissions graph above, across the four impact areas of food, heating, transport and consumer goods. These graphs are quick ways to see where progress is taking place, and where the target is going to be very difficult to achieve.

Your feedback

After you have read this report, we’d really appreciate your feedback to help us understand the impact it is having, and improve this in future years.

Handy advice on climate actions you can take

We are creating series of articles highlighting actions you can take for the climate on the areas of food, heating, transport and consumer goods - see the links below for consumer goods related advice:

Join in

Combined efforts can have greater impact than people on their own. Key consumer goods campaigns to support include:

  • Restart Project: campaigns for right to repair
  • Extinction Rebellion: uses non-violent civil disobedience to address the climate emergency in decentralised
    groups.
  • Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WeALL): global network of organisations working to transform the economic system
  • Climate & Nature Bill: this bill aims to require the UK government to systematically address all consumption (and other) impacts according to the best available science.
  • Transparency International: aims to end the corrupting influence of big money in UK politics and to instil integrity into the conduct of those in public office.

Plus our online directory of Libraries of Things is very popular, with nearly 100 places listed across the UK, enabling you to borrow rather than buy many consumer goods. The page also has links to two directories of repair cafes. 

We would like to express gratitude to Ecology Building Society for its sponsorship of the 2023 Climate Gap Report.

Ecology Building Society logo

What is the Climate Gap report?

Ethical Consumer's first Climate Gap report was published in October 2021, to track progress towards sustainable consumer lifestyles in the UK. The report helps identify how consumers, governments and companies can work together to help fix the climate crisis.

The report's aim is to track the gap between our current combined consumption emissions and where they need to be by 2030. A second key aim of the project is to produce a simplified list of key actions for consumers, companies and governments.

The report has four sections on the areas where our lifestyle climate impacts are the biggest: food, housing, transport and consumer goods, covering 75% of combined total consumer emissions. It compares where consumer behaviour is in these areas against 2030 targets from reports issued by the UK Government's own Climate Change Committee (CCC). Read more about whether the CCC's targets themselves are robust enough, in the Key Findings on our campaign page.

We update the report annually, to provide targets for consumers, companies and government each year.

Also of interest

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    Read more

  • Ethical Mobile Phones

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    Finding an ethical mobile phone. Ethical & environmental rankings of 21 mobile phones, Best Buys and what to avoid! Sustainability ratings, conflict mineral use, repairability, plus secondhand options. 
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