However, transport-related emissions have only fallen 1% since 1990, reflecting the UK's poor performance in deploying renewable energy in the transport sector. Previous progress in reducing energy demand may also be running out of steam - cutbacks to energy efficiency programmes could be responsible for domestic emissions creeping back up.
While the UK figures reflect worldwide trends, with decarbonisation of some economic activities happening faster than expected, longer-term concerns remain about economic and policy uncertainty - and whether further deep cuts to emissions can be delivered.