Climate impact

Carbon Footprint Calculator

Enter your typical driving, flights, home energy use and diet. The calculator estimates your yearly carbon dioxide emissions, splits them by category and compares them with world averages.

Travel

Distance unit

Car distance per week (mi)

Fuel economy (mpg)

Fuel

Bus & train per week (mi)

Short-haul flights / year

Long-haul flights / year

Home & food

Electricity (kWh / month)

Grid factor (kg CO2 / kWh)

Natural gas per month

Gas unit

People in household

Diet

—Tonnes CO2 per year

—kg per month

—vs world average (4.7 t)

Calculated on your device. Nothing is uploaded to a server.

How this carbon footprint estimate works

Each activity is multiplied by an emission factor. Burning a liter of gasoline releases about 2.31 kg of CO2, and diesel about 2.68 kg. Electricity depends on how your grid generates power, so the grid factor is editable. The default of 0.37 kg per kWh is close to the US average, while grids with a lot of hydro, nuclear or renewables can be under 0.1. Natural gas emits about 5.3 kg per therm (1.9 kg per m³). Flights use per-trip averages that include the extra warming effect of emissions at altitude. Home energy is divided by the number of people in the household. Food emissions use typical annual values for each diet type.

What is not included

Shopping, services, public infrastructure and the goods you buy also have footprints. They are left out because they are hard to estimate from a few inputs.

Biggest levers

For many people, flights, car travel and home heating dominate. Swapping one long-haul flight can save more than a year of careful recycling.

Carbon Footprint Calculator FAQ

What is an average carbon footprint?

The global average is roughly 4.7 tonnes of CO2 per person per year. In the US it is around 14 to 16 tonnes, and in the EU about 6 to 8 tonnes, depending on how it is measured.

What target should I aim for?

Pathways that limit warming to 1.5 to 2 °C imply average footprints of around 2 tonnes per person by 2050 or earlier.

How accurate is the estimate?

It's a rough estimate for spotting your biggest sources. Actual factors vary by vehicle, grid region, flight distance and cabin class.

Why divide home energy by household size?

Heating and electricity are shared, so each person's share is the household total divided by the number of people.

How are flights counted?

Count each one-way flight. A round trip is two flights. Short-haul flights are under about 3 hours, and long-haul flights are longer.