What is a carbon footprint?
A carbon footprint is the total amount of carbon dioxide that an individual or an organisation is responsible for emitting over a year period. This is a combination of direct emissions from transport fuel, heating fuel and indirect emissions from electricity use. Resource use can also be included in the footprint assessment – e.g. are you a true ‘greeny’; growing all your food, and buying very few products or are you a convenience shopper; eating out regularly and buying all the latest gadgets and gismos? Most of us lie somewhere along this spectrum but the Difference between the two can be as much as 2.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
For the UK an average carbon footprint is 9.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is ten times that of a sustainable footprint for all those on the planet! This is in comparison to India where their average footprint is 1.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Having a gauge of where your carbon footprint is can help you to strive towards a more sustainable, fairer distribution of energy use. |