Defra told us that it has looked very carefully into the question of carbon emissions.57 Its analysis so far suggests that carbon emissions resulting from shipping goods from Australia to the UK are not the most significant factor when looking at the carbon footprint of different sorts of production. The Department for International Trade added that it has modelled the environmental impact of the UK’s agreement with Australia and it does not think the greenhouse gas emissions of UK production will change much although transport has to be looked at as a whole.58 We asked Defra whether emissions outside territorial waters are counted when measuring the UK’s carbon emissions. Defra did not know but said that the quantitative assessment of environmental impacts is a very live topic across the world.59 The Department for International Trade wrote to us after the evidence session to confirm that its transport emissions modelling uses the whole distance between two trading partners, and captures the emissions associated with travel in non-territorial waters. It applies sensitivity analysis using the shortest and longest typical maritime routes between two trading partners to estimate the distance travelled by shipping freight.60 The NAO noted that the UK’s target to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 is set on a territorial basis and does not include emissions from goods produced overseas and traded with the UK.61 53 Qq 21–22 54 Q 12 55 Q 13 56 Q 14 57 Q 23 58 Q 24 59 Q 26 60 Letter from Permanent Secretary, DIT, to the Chair of the Public Accounts, 4 February 2022 https://committees. parliament.uk/publications/8916/documents/152325/default/ 61 C&AG’s report, para 3.6 16 Progress with trade negotiations 3 Transparency and scrutiny Transparency of information