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Carbon · Flagship calculator

Carbon Footprint Calculator

Add up your annual CO₂ from electricity, heating, driving, flights, diet and general consumption. Uses country-specific grid intensities and DEFRA/IPCC emission factors — every number is editable and every formula is documented below.

Home energy (household total)

= 1,330 kg CO₂/year at 0.38 kg/kWh.

= 3,030 kg CO₂/year at 0.2 kg/kWh.

Driving (per person)

= 2,304 kg CO₂/year.

Transit & flights (per person)

~1,000 km each way

~3,000 km each way

~10,000 km each way — includes 1.9× radiative-forcing multiplier

Flights = 492 kg · Transit = 110 kg.

Diet & consumption (per person)

Meat 4–6 meals/week, beef 1–2×. = 2,500 kg CO₂/yr.

Clothing, electronics, furniture, hobbies. Rule of thumb: 0.5 kg CO₂e per unit currency spent = 3,000 kg/yr.

Your annual footprint

10.6 t

CO₂-equivalent per person, per year.

vs country avg

10.4 t

You are 2% above the Germany average.

1.5 °C pathway

2.3 t by 2030

Gap to close: 8.3 t. Long-term target 0.7 t by 2050.

0 t2.3 t 4.7 t 10.4 t 20 t

Where your CO₂ comes from

Home21% · 2,180 kgCar22% · 2,304 kgTransit1% · 110 kgFlights5% · 492 kgDiet24% · 2,500 kgGoods28% · 3,000 kg

Highest-leverage reductions for you

  • •Switching from Petrol to an EV on your grid (0.38 kg CO₂/kWh) cuts driving emissions to ~821 kg/yr. See the EV charging cost calculator.
  • •Replacing your gas with a heat pump (SCOP 3.5) cuts heat emissions to ~1,629 kg/yr. Run the numbers with the heat pump savings calculator.
  • •Shifting from average omnivore to low-meat flexitarian saves 600 kg CO₂/yr — no equipment, no capital cost.
  • •A 4 kWp rooftop PV system covering ~40% of your electricity would cut 532 kg CO₂/yr. See the solar payback calculator.
  • •Audit your appliances to cut electricity in the first place — use the home energy audit.

How the math works

Each category is a single multiplication. All factors are documented and editable:

Electricity = annual kWh × grid CO₂ intensity

Heating = heat kWh × fuel factor (gas 0.202, oil 0.267, LPG 0.214, wood 0.020, HP = grid ÷ SCOP)

Car = km × factor (petrol 0.192, diesel 0.171, hybrid 0.120, PHEV 0.090, EV = kWh/km × grid)

Public transit = km × factor (bus 0.097, train 0.041, tram 0.028)

Flights = km × factor (short 0.246, medium 0.192, long 0.195) — includes 1.9× RF

Diet = annual CO₂ from Poore & Nemecek (2018)

Goods = spend × 0.5 kg CO₂e per currency unit

Home energy is per household and divided by the number of people you enter, since electricity and heating are shared. Transport, flights, diet and goods are counted per person.

Radiative forcing on flights uses a 1.9× multiplier per DEFRA 2024 guidance. This captures the additional warming impact of contrails, NOₓ and water vapour at cruising altitude — without it, aviation looks roughly half as damaging as it actually is.

Uncertainty on any single line is ±15–25%; the aggregate total for a typical household is ±10%. Use the country presets as an anchor, and override the grid factor with a live figure from your national grid operator (National Grid ESO, RTE, Statnett, EIA) for maximum accuracy.

Frequently asked questions

How is a personal carbon footprint calculated?
Multiply each activity by its emission factor and add them up: electricity (kWh × grid CO₂/kWh), heating (kWh × fuel factor), driving (km × vehicle factor), flights (km × flight factor including radiative forcing), and diet (annual kg CO₂ from food category). Consumption of goods and services is estimated from spend and average sector intensity. The total is expressed in tonnes CO₂-equivalent per year.
Why does the grid CO₂ number matter so much?
Electricity intensity varies more than 30× across countries — Norway is around 20 g CO₂/kWh, Poland 660 g. That single factor determines whether an EV, heat pump or induction hob is a large or modest CO₂ improvement over gas or petrol equivalents. The calculator lets you override the default with a live figure from your national grid operator.
Do you include radiative forcing on flights?
Yes. Flight factors here use a 1.9× multiplier on well-to-wheel CO₂ to account for high-altitude non-CO₂ effects (contrails, NOₓ, water vapour). This is the DEFRA and IPCC recommended approach. Without radiative forcing, a return long-haul flight looks half as damaging as it actually is.
How reliable are the diet numbers?
They are anchored in Poore & Nemecek (2018) Science, the largest peer-reviewed meta-analysis of food emissions (38,700 farms, 40 products). Individual variance is high — grass-fed beef can be 30% lower than intensive; imported air-freighted asparagus can be 5× a local equivalent. Treat the diet buckets here as representative ±20%.
What is the "1.5 °C pathway" benchmark?
To align with limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, the average individual carbon footprint needs to fall to roughly 2.3 tonnes CO₂e/year by 2030 and 0.7 tonnes by 2050 (IPCC AR6, C1 scenarios). Current global average is 4.7 tonnes, European average 7–10 tonnes, US average 17.5 tonnes. The gauge below shows how your total compares.
Is buying carbon offsets a valid reduction?
Offsets are last-resort, not first-line. Independent audits (Guardian/Die Zeit/SourceMaterial, 2023) found the majority of forestry credits over-claim reductions. Prioritise actual reductions — LED lighting, heat pump, less driving, less flying, less red meat — before offsetting a residual. If you buy offsets, look for Gold Standard or Verra VCS with additionality evidence.

Keep exploring

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Carbon hub

Emission factor guides for electricity, food, transport and water.

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Home Energy Audit

Appliance-by-appliance breakdown — cut the kWh before you offset.

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Heat Pump Savings

Biggest single lever for heating CO₂ in most homes.

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Solar Payback

Displace grid electricity with rooftop PV.

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EV Charging Cost

Cost and CO₂ per km on your grid vs petrol.

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Footprint methodology

The full guide behind the numbers in this calculator.