Is the UK supposed to turn away from global trade and become an isolated, self-sufficient nation just to meet its climate commitments? Do you require that of every nation on the planet?
Or should the UK impose its policies and laws on other nations? Do you prefer that model?
I don't think it's a particularly good argument that we should accept one method of accounting or another because we like or dislike its policy implications. What is an honest and clear method of accounting in your eyes?
Territorial emissions accounting might not be perfect, Mabey says, but in terms of simplicity it is the more practical approach. Lord Deben, chair of the UK’s Committee on Climate Change, told the BBC the UK only has direct control over its home-grown emissions, whereas manufacturing methods and energy choices in China are outside our control.
By consequent, I disagree with your more holistic approach of measuring carbon costs as it is based on a moral judgement, and not a quantity that we can measure in any reasonable way.
It then becomes the importing manufacturer’s responsibility to actually do something about climate change.
To take moral responsibility for the effects of ones own consumption on the rest of the world seems just to me.
This is not to diminish the efforts the UK has undergone to transform their energy sector.