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Calculate Your Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) Emissions

Go straight to the Calculator

Why do we need to know how much CO₂ we produce?

Recent years have seen a huge rise in the number of abnormal weather events. These have included summer droughts, flooding in Yorkshire, the Severn Valley and East Sussex, and even a number of small tornados in Southern England. Meteorologists agree that these exceptional conditions are signs that Global Climate Change is happening already.

Scientists agree that the most likely cause of the changes are man-made emissions of the so-called "Greenhouse Gases" that can trap heat in the earth's atmosphere in the same way that glass traps heat in a greenhouse. Although there are six major groups of gases that contribute to Global Climate Change, the most common is Carbon Dioxide (CO₂).

Click on the map for an informal overview of why some countries' emissions are higher than others.

Carbon Dioxide is a global problem, but the countries that produce the greatest amount per person are in North America, Europe and Australasia. If Carbon Dioxide reductions are to be made, the lead has to be taken by people living in these countries. Most Carbon Dioxide in these countries comes from burning fossil fuels, such as coal, gas and oil to heat buildings (including homes) and transport, not to foget the enormous amount of plastic made for luxuries and the entertainment industries, much of which gets burnt.

Carbon Dioxide is also given off by all living things, but due to the use of petrochemical fertilisers etc, the huge growth in animals, human and otherwise and their decay canmot be absorbed by the ever decreasing plant life.

Why is this a problem now, when we have been burning coal for centuries?

It is quite true that we, in Britain, have been burning coal for several hundred years. But the Carbon Dioxide emissions each year have risen sharply since 1900, and these higher levels cannot be taken out of the atmosphere by green plants. And 100 years ago, there were only a few industrialised countries in Europe and North America burning fossil fuels. These days, the whole world wishes gain a better standard of living through increasing industrialisation.

CO₂ emissions over the last 250 years : http://www.natenergy.org.uk/co2-250y.htm.

What are Governments doing to reduce emissions?

Governments across the world have met in a series of Climate Change Conferences and set targets for the reduction of emissions of CO₂ from burning fossil fuels. (There has been some disagreement about how much each country should do as its fair share, but almost all governments accept that they have to take some measures.

The best way of reducing CO₂ emissions is by using less energy and - just as importantly - getting best value from the energy that we do use. But as well as doing this, it helps to know just how much Carbon Dioxide we are using. This web page includes a simple calculator that should help in calculating your own CO₂ emissions. All figures apply to the UK and are based upon official Government figures from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The Calculator

How To : Type the yearly resource-value from your bill or records under Resource Used. Clicking on [Enter] or anywhere outside the cell you just filled will display the result in the column on the right and update the Total CO₂.

Enter your best estimates for a years consumption.	Resource Used	Conversion Factor	CO₂ Emissions
	Coal in 50Kg bags	× 121 =	Kg
Ł2/week = 1000 KWh/year	Electricity Mains in kWh	× 0.43 =	Kg
	Natural gas in kWh	× 0.19 =	Kg
	Natural gas in Therms	× 5.50 =	Kg
Liquid Petroleum Gas for Vehicles	LPG in Litres	× 1.51 =	Kg
Butane & Propane (Calor Gas^TM) in Kilos	Bottled Gas in Kg	× 3.02 =	Kg
Heating and/or Transport	Gasoil or Diesel in Litres	× 2.68 =	Kg
Prefered method to 'miles' in a petrol car'	Petrol in Litres	× 2.31 =	Kg
At 30 mpg average. Adjust accordingly	Petrol Miles by car	× 0.38 =	Kg
	Train or Bus Miles	× 0.10 =	Kg
	Air Miles	× 0.29 =	Kg
		Total CO₂ = Carbon =	Kg Kg

There are two other calculators you may like to try, see what differences they come up with.

1. The Quakergreenaction Calculator This is a pdf file of some 175Kb, which you will need to print off and fill in and do the sums in your head. It is also available at
plymouthenvironmentcentre.org.uk/documents/greenhousegascalculator.pdf

2. Carbon Rationing Action Group's spreadsheet This is a spreadsheet (20Kb) that once downloaded will be usable on a computer running Microsoft Office Excel
(Will try to convert this to open source or HTML file). It is also available at
plymouthenvironmentcentre.org.uk/documents/co2_conversion_spreadsheet.xls

Bear in mind that around half UK CO₂ emissions come from industry and commerce, supporting our everyday lifestyle. So if your personal profile comes out below about 3,000 kgCO₂ (3 tonnes), you are doing reasonably well by UK standards, but would still need to do more to be a good global citizen!

All data in this table is based upon official UK data from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, revised March 2001. Emissions for other fuels can be found on DEFRA's Environmental Reporting page (Link seems duff). For other countries, the electricity component would need to be adjusted based upon primary fuel mix.

For electricity generated from renewable sources, zero carbon dioxide emissions may be used if the supply has been certified by OFGEM .
The car mileage figure is based upon an average UK family car returning 30mpg. If you drive a smaller car achieving (say) 40mpg, or regularly share a car, then you could adjust the mileage accordingly to estimate CO₂ emissions.
Aeroplane emissions are very hard to estimate. The figure above is based upon short-haul (European) flights in economy class - add up to 50% for business class travel with lower seat densities. However there is some evidence that there is at least as much Global Warming effect again from other aircraft emissions in the upper atmosphere, such as ozone created from NO (Nitric Oxide) or condensation trails, than solely from the CO₂ emitted on the journey.

Adapted from www.natenergy.org.uk
Added 15th May, 2007 by Roger
Updated 16th May, 2007 by Roger

Internal links checked on 11th February 2008

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