Our Carbon Footprint
Heating our homes, cooking our dinner or driving to work – all of these activities produce emissions of CO2 and contribute to our personal Carbon Footprint. In following article, we will reveal how these develop and what this term actually means.
Our weather is getting extremer and the Earth warmer and warmer: in the meantime, the Earth’s surface is on average 1 °C warmer than in 1850. By 2100 the temperature is expected to rise by 2 to 3°. The increase in greenhouse gases is the main reason behind this – first and foremost the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Taking stock of our CO2 consumption
And this is precisely where the Carbon Footprint comes into play. Also known as the CO2 Footprint, this is a way of calculating all of the CO2 emissions we are responsible for. It provides information about what quantities of greenhouse gases are released by an act or activity – such as flying in a plane. But it is not just humans who have a CO2-footprint. This also applies to products. The products we either consume or use. Their footprint is created by the sum of the emissions generated in the course of the production of the raw materials used to make them, as well as during their use and disposal.
The Carbon Footprint can be calculated – with sometimes more and sometimes less effort – for every single act, and apart from individual persons and products, it can also be calculated for services, private households, companies and countries. The Carbon Footprint is indicated in CO2-equivalents, since apart from carbon dioxide, the emissions of five other greenhouse gases are detrimental to the climate and are taken into consideration: methane, sulfur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and nitrogen trifluoride. Since CO2 is generally the largest contributor to these emissions, it is taken as the primary measuring unit.
But why is CO2 harmful to the climate? CO2 is a greenhouse gas. Like the glass of a glasshouse, it prevents warmth from escaping the earth into space. This is, in actual fact, a good thing since if there was no greenhouse effect, we would generally have an average temperature on earth of minus 18 °C. However, as a result of our emissions around 32 billion tons of CO2 are additionally released into the atmosphere – and in this way the greenhouse effect is reinforced causing the Earth to heat up more and more.
Emission villains
Meat consumption, industry or traffic – these are the villains who most frequently come to mind when we think of high CO2-emissions. A look at the emissions going by economic sector brings the message home: the sector of energy and heat production causes a quarter of emissions while agriculture and the forestry industry are responsible for another quarter. In particular the greenhouse gas, methane, which is produced in the course of milk and meat production, is of great significance. Industry accounts for 20 % of emissions and another 14% is chalked up by traffic.
Great imbalances in global comparison
Seen globally, there are great inequalities in the emissions between countries and regions. In 2020 China was the top contributor of emissions with around 10 billion tons of CO2. China leads the way due to its coal power plants. The USA follows with around 5.5 billion tons of CO2 and then India with 2.4 billion tons. According to estimates from the Global Carbon Project (GCP) in 2020 the global average per capita CO2-output of all humans was around 4.4 tons of CO2 – more than double the amount of per capita consumption which is required to reach the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
What can be done to reduce our Carbon Footprint?
To reduce CO2-emissions as an individual, we are familiar with some suggestions – avoiding traveling by plane through to reducing the amount of meat we consume. One should also questions one’s own routines and think about where the products we consume are produced and what they are actually made of – since even small changes can make a contribution towards a smaller Footprint. More on our Carbon Footprint – numbers, facts and findings – will follow in the coming months, right here on itsinourhands.com
Source & further information:
Was ist ein CO2-Fußabdruck? - First Climate
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/each-countrys-share-co2-emissions
https://science.orf.at/v2/stories/2988476/
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