4 Comparing your carbon footprint with other people's

4.1 Average UK carbon footprints

As you worked through a selection of the calculators in section 3.2, you might have been given information about the UK or international average carbon footprints. Typically, they might have told you that per capita emissions are 5.5 tonnes a year, or 10 tonnes a year, or that the average UK household emits 13 tonnes a year. This is all very confusing!

The discrepancies are largely about boundaries and scope, as hinted at in section 2. Some websites take total UK emissions (531,735,718 tonnes CO₂e, according to the National Atmospheric Emission Inventory in 2005/6) and divide it by the UK population (60,587,900 from the same source) to reach a total estimate of UK emissions (8.78 tCO₂e if you do the maths, but this tends to be reported as about 10 tonnes!). Other websites look at directly attributable emissions – household energy use including electricity and personal travel – to come up with the household figure, and then divide that by average occupant numbers to come up with the lower figure for individuals. It can be argued that the total UK figure is seriously understated, as it omits the carbon embodied in goods imported into the UK (and the UK is a significant net importer). The value of 8.78 tCO₂e also omits emissions from aviation and shipping because of the vagaries of international accounting for carbon. On a more personal level, the Carbon Account website allows you to compare your footprint with other people’s in the UK. It allows you to compare your footprint with others and to plot its movement on a monthly basis. It includes a basic calculator, based on gas and electricity use, miles driven and flights taken.

The National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory allows you to download various datasets, including CO₂ emissions for local authorities.