Global warming is one of the greatest ecological challenges facing our society. In this fight, everyone can make a contribution. But to do so, it's essential to calculate your carbon footprint. How and why should you calculate your carbon footprint? We tell you all about it right here!
Definition of carbon footprint
The carbon footprint is a measure of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions associated with an activity. You can calculate your personal carbon footprint in your daily life, but also that of a company, a trip, a territory, or the manufacture of products, to give just a few examples.
Even when we talk about carbon footprints, we're actually calculating not justCO2, or carbon dioxide, emissions, but those of several greenhouse gases that have an impact on the climate. The carbon footprint therefore takes into account the three main greenhouse gases, or GHGs: carbon dioxide, of course, but also methane and nitrous oxide. These three gases account for most of the GHGs covered by the Kyoto Protocol. For this reason, the carbon footprint is expressed in carbon equivalents, sometimes writtenCO2e, for a more complete calculation.
Calculating your carbon footprint: an essential step
The production of greenhouse gases, increased by the industrial revolution, is causing global warming. While nature itself produces greenhouse gases, human activities are producing them in such quantities, and so rapidly, that they can no longer be absorbed by the carbon sinks that are forests. However, while these gases play an essential role in regulating our planet's temperature and making it habitable, their presence in excessive quantities, as is the case with human activities, heats up the atmosphere excessively.
As a result, the last decade was the hottest ever recorded on Earth!
That's why most of the world's countries signed the Paris Agreements in 2015, aiming to limit global warming to 1.5°C, compared with pre-industrial temperatures. France is also committed to reducing its GHG emissions by 40% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels.
In this context, every individual gesture has an impact. Calculating your carbon footprint is therefore the first step in becoming aware of your impact on the climate. It's an essential step towards measuring the GHG emissions linked to our various lifestyle habits, and modifying them accordingly. In fact, it's only once we're aware of our carbon footprint that we can identify the various levers for action available to us.
How do you calculate your carbon footprint?
There are various tools available for calculating your carbon footprint. The ADEMEthe French Environment and Energy Management Agency, allows you to calculate your personal carbon footprint, according to your lifestyle.
It's based on a 10-minute questionnaire about your daily habits: food, transport, housing and other habits. Depending on your answers, the simulator will provide you with an estimate of your carbon footprint for the year, expressed in tons ofCO2.
Other carbon footprint calculators include Footprint Calculator is an international reference. Like the previous site, it is based on a questionnaire about our daily lives, to establish a carbon footprint and other data to reduce our more general ecological footprint, such as our consumption of resources.
Finally, the Good Planet Foundation, created by environmental photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, has also created a simulator. It calculates carbon footprints for both companies and individuals, and even offers a simulator for events such as travel, which is very useful for organizing a sustainable trip.
Ways to reduce your carbon footprint
To reduce your carbon footprint, you first need to identify the activities that produce the most greenhouse gases. Calculating your carbon footprint is the first step towards realizing your personal impact. It is also interesting to observe the origins of CO2 and other GHG emissions by sector, in the world and in France, or in your own country.
In France, for example, in 2019, almost half of all carbon dioxide emissions will come from transport (source: IEA, 2021). Cars have the biggest impact, not because they produce more for the same journey, but because they are the most widely used. Air travel accounts for around 2.5% of global emissions. On a global scale, energy production accounts for the largest share of emissions, with 41%. Yet this sector accounts for only 12% of France's emissions, as we use very few high-emission energies.
By studying these sectoral graphs, we can draw some recommendations for reducing our carbon footprint:
- Avoid the car as much as possible, and use public transport instead
- When driving, adopt a responsible driving style, by driving slower, and if possible use a low-carbon vehicle
- Avoid air travel, in line with the principles of slow tourism
- Reduce meat consumption
- Eat locally and in season
- Reduce food waste
- Eliminate energy waste, for example by turning down the heating or unplugging appliances in your absence
- Renovate your home to improve insulation
- Limit your purchases to your strict needs
