Tool
Personal Carbon Footprint Calculator
Estimate your annual carbon footprint from electricity, gas, car travel, flights, diet and waste, in kg CO2e per year.
Method
UK DEFRA 2024 factors (electricity 0.20705 kg/kWh, gas 0.18290 kg/kWh, petrol 2.0844 kg/L, diesel 2.5128 kg/L); diet pattern averages from Poore & Nemecek (2018) via Our World in Data; waste to landfill 0.49704 kg/kg. Fuel factors are combustion-only.
Limitations
Estimates only, not a measured footprint. Grid factor is editable because it varies by country; the default is the UK 2024 grid factor. Flights use economy factors with radiative forcing. Do not use this as an offset or trading figure.
Personal carbon footprint calculator
Annual estimate in kg CO2e. Leave anything that does not apply blank — blank counts as 0.
Enter at least one value above to see your breakdown.
Result: 2044.00 kg CO2e per year (2.04 tonnes)
- Electricity: 0.00 kg
- Natural gas: 0.00 kg
- Car: 0.00 kg
- Flights (economy, radiative forcing included): 0.00 kg
- Diet: 2044.00 kg
- Waste (landfilled only): 0.00 kg
Estimate only — UK 2024 factors, fuel combustion only, flights include radiative forcing, diet is a pattern average. Not for regulatory reporting. Sources: DESNZ/DEFRA Conversion Factors 2024; Poore & Nemecek (2018) via Our World in Data.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Personal Carbon Footprint Calculator estimate?
It estimates your annual carbon footprint in kg CO2e per year from electricity, natural gas, car travel, flights, diet and waste, with a breakdown by category. It is an estimate, not a measured footprint.
Which emission factors does the footprint calculator use?
It uses UK DEFRA 2024 factors, including electricity 0.20705 kg per kWh and natural gas 0.18290 kg per kWh, petrol 2.0844 kg per litre and diesel 2.5128 kg per litre. Fuel factors are combustion-only, so well-to-tank emissions are excluded.
Why is the electricity grid factor editable?
Grid factors vary by country, so the tool pre-fills the UK 2024 factor of 0.20705 kg per kWh but lets you replace it with your local verified factor. If you do not change it, the result uses the UK factor and is labelled as such.
How does the diet part of the calculator work?
It uses diet pattern averages, not a per-food builder, because per-food factors vary widely by production system. A medium-meat pattern is 5.6 kg per day, a vegetarian pattern is 3.8 kg per day and a vegan pattern is 2.9 kg per day, each multiplied by 365 days.
What does the footprint calculator not do?
It does not calculate offsets, trees to plant, or a price for offsetting, and it does not use airport-to-airport lookup. Flights are entered as passenger-kilometres, so a return trip must be entered as doubled distance.