Fact check: The UK government has calculated for 2021 that over a range of electronic (IT) devices the carbon intensity per kg of product is 24.865kg CO2e.

1. What the claim actually says — and why it matters

The original statement asserts a precise UK government calculation for 2021: 24.865 kg CO2e per kg across a range of IT devices. That specificity implies a government‑endorsed, economy‑wide intensity metric for hardware, which would be useful for company reporting and product footprinting. The reviewed UK methodology document for greenhouse gas conversion factors covers company reporting approaches and conversion methodologies, and could be used to produce per‑kg intensities, but the document itself does not present the cited 24.865 kg CO2e per kg number, nor does it claim a single intensity applies uniformly across diverse IT products ^[1].

2. Scholarly evidence points to device totals, not a single per‑kg intensity

Academic lifecycle assessments in the dataset estimate embodied emissions per device—for example, one study gives approximately 50 kg CO2e for a smartphone and 200 kg CO2e for a laptop—but they do not translate these into a single UK government per‑kg intensity for all IT hardware ^[2]. These studies focus on material composition, manufacturing processes, and use‑phase emissions, producing device‑specific totals that vary by design, lifetime, and supply chain. Translating those totals into a per‑kg figure requires additional assumptions about device weight distributions and boundaries, which the supplied papers do not make explicit ^[2].

3. Global context: aggregated embodied emissions show scale but not intensity per kg

One recent analysis estimated the global embodied emissions of ICT user devices at about 180 Mtonne CO2e in 2020, highlighting the sector’s significance ^[2]. That aggregate figure underscores the potential impact of hardware manufacturing yet does not provide a mass‑normalized intensity metric usable as a UK government‑level per‑kg standard. Aggregates and device averages can be consistent with a per‑kg estimate, but without the calculation pathway—allocation rules, included lifecycle stages, geographic boundaries—such a number remains unverifiable from the supplied sources ^[2].

4. Methodology matters: government conversion factors vs. academic LCA approaches

Governmental conversion factor methodologies aim to support corporate reporting and often compile a wide set of sectoral and material intensities; academic LCAs use process‑sum or input‑output approaches tailored to specific products. The UK methodology paper lays out how to convert activity data to GHGs for reporting, but it does not itself produce a universal per‑kg IT device intensity, and the academic studies use different boundaries and timeframes, producing non‑comparable metrics without reconciliation ^{[1] [3]}. This methodological divergence could explain how a precise number like 24.865 might emerge if someone combined disparate datasets with unstated assumptions.

5. Possible explanations for the 24.865 number — and red flags

A plausible explanation is that the 24.865 kg CO2e/kg figure was derived by dividing aggregated emissions by aggregated mass from a mixed dataset, or taken from a sectoral average in an internal or non‑published calculation. That would require explicit assumptions about included lifecycle stages, device types, and mass allocation. The reviewed sources do not document such a calculation, so the number could reflect a misinterpretation, an imputed value from private modelling, or a transcription error. The absence of a traceable citation in the provided sources is a significant red flag ^{[1] [2]}.

6. What the evidence supports and what remains unknown

The evidence supports that embedded carbon in ICT devices is substantial and uneven across product types, with clear device‑level estimates available and a sizable global total reported for 2020. What remains unknown, and unsupported by the provided material, is any UK government‑published single per‑kg intensity for IT devices in 2021 equal to 24.865 kg CO2e/kg. To validate the original claim would require either a citation to a specific UK government dataset or a transparent calculation showing how device masses and emissions were aggregated ^{[1] [2]}.

7. Bottom line and recommended next steps for verification

Bottom line: the supplied documents do not corroborate the 24.865 kg CO2e/kg UK government figure for 2021. To verify the claim, request the original UK government source or ask for the calculation steps and boundaries used to produce 24.865 kg CO2e/kg. Cross‑check any provided government reference against the UK greenhouse gas conversion factors methodology and the academic device LCAs, because reconciling methodological differences—including scope, year, and product boundaries—is essential to produce a defensible per‑kg intensity ^{[1] [2]}.