What’s your carbon footprint and where does it come from?

When I learned for the first time that an average European is responsible for emissions of almost 10 tons of carbon dioxide per year (and an American double that amount) I was really shocked.

I wanted to know how much of this carbon footprint is related to particular activities: heating, riding a car, flying a plane, food and goods production, home electricity consumption etc. I wanted to know how my carbon footprint relates to the average in my country, in the United States, China or India. Was my emissions level safe for the Earth or maybe it looked like the trace of Godzilla? And most of all – I wanted to know what changes in my life will have a real impact, not just improve my good feeling. I strived to reduce my carbon footprint, so this information was critical for informed decisions.

If you have similar thoughts, the best way to answer them is to use a Personal Carbon Footprint Calculator, official tool of Polish Ministry of Environment for UN COP14 climate conference (there is also a local version of the calculator - you can download it here, installing Adobe AIR first). The calculator will translate your lifestyle into your total carbon footprint, divided into several categories and displayed in a clear graphical form.

Illustration 1. American lifestyle: double average US income, suburban house, SUV, meat diet and frequent flying amount to 37 tons of CO₂ emissions a year.

The calculator also shows how your carbon footprint would change after some changes to your lifestyle.

Illustration 2. American lifestyle reconsidered: half of average US income, city apartment, bicycle and public transport, local vegetarian diet and no flying reduce the footprint to 9 tons of CO₂ per year. Excluding the emissions one does not control (bottom yellow bar, representing emission related to the construction and maintenance of roads, tunnels and bridges, lighting the cities, administration, army and police, rescue services, clinics and hospitals, churches, museums, water supply and wastewater systems, schools etc.) the personal emissions is reduced to just over 5 tons CO₂/year.

Check your emissions and see, what can you do to lower your carbon footprint. Make an experiment: see what changes to your lifestyle would be needed to reduce your footprint to the world’s average (5 tons CO₂/year). For me it was a very enlightening experience.

I realized how many sources of emissions there are and that living in a developed country it’s really hard to reduce the emissions - there is no single silver bullet. I also realized that in my efforts to reduce my carbon footprint I was often fooling myself, doing what was easy, not what was effective.

I often use the calculator during my lectures and workshops. I usually simulate a person living an 'American Lifestyle' (say, Mr Jones) and then ask workshop participants to advice, what should Mr Jones do to significantly reduce his footprint. First suggestion usually is an energy-efficient house. Then things get tricky, because people feel Mr Jones would not necessarily like their suggestions: give up flying, don’t use a car (or sell your SUV and buy something smaller and much more energy efficient – and drive less!), curb your consumption, stop eating meat, take showers instead of baths and don’t use air conditioning.

Mr Jones, willing to preserve both his high consumption lifestyle and an image of a good and responsible citizen, may be tempted to forget the whole issue switching to another topics, denying the problem or saying that his emissions are only an insignificantly small part of the problem (or use a number of other well-known justifications for not-changing-anything).

I wondered about it a lot and decided that doing my best to limit the "height of the carbon footprint bar" is the right thing to do (now it’s around 5.8 tons CO₂/year). There are a few reasons, why:

• There are tipping points in the climate system. There may be a ton that will be "a ton too far".

• Lower carbon footprint means less spending, leading to savings instead of debt, less pressure to chase the money and more time for what’s really important in life. I’m very happy with this attitude.

• Pursuing happy selfish consumption now, at a price of extinction of countless species and cataclysmic future of our children is an attitude based on ethics I don't share (well, that's my opinion, some people may think otherwise).

• Credibility: if you tell others that we have to reduce the emissions, meanwhile driving SUV, flying around the world and buying a lot of stuff, you will be perceived as a hypocrite. This will do more harm then good. We have to walk the talk.

• We have a natural tendency for forgetting the inconvenient. Constantly placing "carbon footprint issue" high on our agenda list we embed it and solidify, educate ourselves and change the way we view the world and our priorities. It also influences our decisions not only in our personal lives but also in our workplaces.

• Changing personal attitude helps change the public attitude. Striving for the low-carbon world ourselves we influence our families, friends and other people we meet. This way we don't push the climate towards the tipping point but the society's response to the crisis.

• Spending your money you influence what will expand and what will contract: support public transport, production of energy efficient appliances and other low-carbon solutions, not companies churning out business-as-usual products.

• Change in the attitudes means a cultural shift, leading to the change in public policies. As an example, someone driving a SUV will have a tendency to demand cheap fuel and construction of more roads. A person cycling and using a public transport will expect changes in another direction. More people demanding turning towards low-carbon economy will give us a better chance that they finally will be adopted.

So, in my opinion, we should reduce our footprint chiefly not because it reduces the fossil fuels consumption, but because it helps us embrace the issue, encourages self-education, changes our world view, stimulates cultural changes around us and influences public outlook and policies.

Living a low-carbon life in an industrialized country is not easy. Moreover, reducing one’s emissions under 1 ton CO₂/year (recommended until 2050) under current infrastructure is next to impossible. We have to redevelop it. The calculator lets you check your impact on the planet given other sources of energy, changes in industry and transport.

But do not wait until it happens by itself. Reducing your own footprint you will stimulate the transition. Sticking to the old ways you maintain the status quo.

Posted by Marcin Popkiewicz on Tuesday, 29 April, 2014

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