Same bill, less carbon
Each June the government publishes a new set of conversion factors, the numbers that turn kWh, litres and miles into kilograms of CO2e. The 2026 set cut the UK grid electricity factor to 0.13096 kg CO2e per kWh, from 0.177 in 2025. That is a fall of about 26%.
The grid factor reflects how the UK's electricity is generated. With more wind and solar and less gas, each kWh on the grid causes fewer emissions. So if you used exactly the same electricity as last year, your location-based Scope 2 figure falls by about 26% without you changing anything. Fuels behave differently: gas and diesel are chemically the same each year, so their factors only shift slightly.
That is good news for the planet, and it is a real change in the carbon intensity of the electricity you use. But it isn't a reduction your business made, and buyers who read Carbon Reduction Plans know it.
A worked example
A small business heats its office with gas and used the same 40,000 kWh in both years. It replaced its lighting, and its electricity use fell from 30,000 kWh to 27,000 kWh. Each year is calculated with its own year's factors.
| Source | 2025 (tCO2e) | 2026 (tCO2e) |
|---|---|---|
| Electricity (Scope 2) | 5.31 | 3.54 |
| Gas (Scope 1) | 7.32 | 7.29 |
| Total | 12.63 | 10.83 |
The total fell by 1.80 tonnes, about 14%. It is tempting to put that straight into the plan as "we cut emissions by 14%". But split the change into its two causes:
| Cause of the change | How it is worked out | tCO2e |
|---|---|---|
| New factors | Last year's use with this year's factors, compared with last year's figures | 1.41 |
| Using less electricity | 3,000 kWh saved × 0.13096 | 0.39 |
Most of the fall came from the factor. The lighting project saved 0.39 tonnes. Both numbers are true, and an honest plan shows both.
How to present it in your Carbon Reduction Plan
- Report the figures as calculated. Current emissions use this year's factors, and your baseline keeps its own year's. Don't restate last year with the new factors, and don't hold this year back on the old ones.
- Add one or two sentences explaining the change. For example: "Our emissions fell by 1.80 tCO2e. Of this, 1.41 tCO2e reflects the government's 2026 conversion factors, mainly the lower UK grid electricity factor. The remaining 0.39 tCO2e came from our LED lighting upgrade."
- List only your own actions as reduction projects. A cleaner grid isn't a project. Lighting, heating controls, electric vans and route planning are.
- Use intensity ratios carefully. Tonnes per employee or per £1 million of turnover will also fall with the factor, so add the same note.
- Expect it to happen again. The grid factor has fallen in most years, and it can also rise. Explaining factor changes each year keeps your plan credible.
Evaluators read many plans. A business that claims a big cut and lists only a lighting upgrade looks careless; a business that separates the two looks like it understands its numbers. If you are on a green tariff, also keep location-based and market-based Scope 2 apart, as our post on location-based vs market-based explains.
Check your own figures
Our free kWh to CO2e calculator shows your electricity, gas and fuel with the 2026 and 2025 factors side by side, so you can see how much of your change comes from the factors. The UK grid electricity factor page lists the factor for every year back to 2019, and our guide to the 2026 conversion factors covers what else changed and which year's set to use.
How Carbon Recycling helps
Carbon Recycling applies the government factor for each entry's own reporting year, and every figure shows the factor's ID, year and value. Because the quantity and the factor sit side by side on every line, you can see whether a line moved because you used less or because the factor changed, which makes the explanation in your plan easy to write and easy for a buyer to check.