Your carbon footprint

Dividing the UK’s officially recorded carbon dioxide emissions per year by the number of adults in the UK gives an average emission per person of approximately 10 tonnes.  This is way above the global average as shown by the following figure.  Because Mole Valley is more prosperous then most of the UK, the average emissions per person in Mole Valley is higher than 10 tons.

However it is important to know that the government’s figures do not include emissions from international shipping, international aviation and net imports of what is known as ‘embodied carbon’.  Embodied carbon refers to the greenhouse gas emitted in the manufacture of goods.  One reason for the fall in our official ghg emissions is that we manufacture less in the UK and import more, from China in particular.  The ghg emissions of the export factories in China are counted as China’s emissions, not the UK’s. This reduces the UK’s official emissions, but it does not help the planet at all.  Even worse, because China’s factories are less efficient than ours, it actually increases global ghg emissions.

A recent study by Oxford University has estimated the true size of the UK’s emissions, for the first time as far as I am aware.  The following picture copied from their report summarises the findings.

The yellow graph shows the official emissions covered by Kyoto.  That is what the government refers to when it claims that the UK has met its Kyoto target for emissions reduction.  Brown shows the net imports of embodied carbon, and grey covers international shipping and aviation.  The total indicates a 19% increase of ghg emissions between 1990 and 2003.  So, as many have long suspected, if we measure our emissions properly we have dismally failed to meet our Kyoto targets.

Your personal emissions

Of the 10 tons per person, roughly half is caused by things that you have direct control over – heating your house, using electricity in your house, buying fuel for your car or motorbike.  The other half is used by government, industry, shops and offices etc.  So that makes average personal emissions 5 tons per person.  Remember though that this excludes international shipping and aviation.  A foreign holiday or two will increase your emissions dramatically – a return trip to Australia will emit more than 5 tonnes CO2 per person!

You can find out what your emissions actually are by using a carbon calculator.  There are many available on the web, and they fall into two types.  If you want an instant estimate without needing to take any measurements, there are calculators that ask you questions about your lifestyle and provide an approximate figure for your CO2 emissions based on your answers.  The calculator on the Mole Valley District Council website is like this.  It estimates the embodied carbon in the food and goods you buy as well as your direct emissions, and so you can expect to get a result nearer 10 tons than 5 tons.  The other type of calculator typically requires you to provide your annual household fuel and electricity consumption, miles travelled by car, and the destination of any flights you make.  This gives a more accurate estimate of your emissions.  Climate Care provides a good example of this type of calculator at www.climatecare.org