31 Oct What is your carbon footprint? COP26
The amount of carbon dioxide (and methane) that you, as a consequence of your lifestyle or your organisation release into the atmosphere, by you going about your normal daily routines, is called your CARBON FOOTPRINT. It is usually measured in kg of carbon dioxide.
Your life can be divided roughly into four sections:
Transport
Waste
Food
Energy
Using a carbon calculator you can input data such as the amount of waste you generate, the number of car journeys, the number of flights, how you get energy in the form of electricity, use of gas or oil to get energy.
The calculator will then convert these data into kg of carbon dioxide that you give out living your normal life, in one year. Once you know these values you can give yourself a target to reduce them. Two examples of calculators you can find on the web are shown below.
If you live in a developed country such as the UK, your lifestyle will be emitting a lot more carbon than if you live in a less developed country. The average person in the UK emits twice as much carbon per year than the average for the planet.
Everything mentioned here today is something that you as an individual can do and it will make a difference. For more ideas about what you can do to reduce your carbon footprint then see the sustainability swaps blog.
COP26 is a vehicle for the countries of the world to legislate in order to truly make the difference to keep the future temperature rises below 1.5 degrees celsius. Sadly the world leaders seem all too keen to look after themselves and it will be a huge challenge to agree on anything meaningful. However, we must believe, albeit with cautious confidence, that the right decisions for the planet and our future will be taken in the next very important 12 days.
I am going to end on a positive point because I am a positive person. Every little helps and if everyone in your home, school, work, town, city, county, country, continent, took steps to lower their carbon footprint, then you all can make a huge difference.
I hope this blog has been useful in giving you ideas about how you measure your carbon footprint, and I hope feel able to change your behaviour and act as a role model to encourage the behavioural change of people around you so that you can vastly magnify the effect of lowering your carbon footprint and make a difference to the future of life on Earth.
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