Sustainable personal footprint
This is simply put a 2-by-2 correlation that is easy to remember for you.
What is the sustainable goal?
194 states and the European Union agreed in the Paris climate accord on the attempt to keep global warming at a sustainable level. They agreed on the goal to limit the average rise in Earth’s temperature to 2°C above the pre-industrial level by 2050.
What does this mean for one person?
Using population growth projections, we can deduce the amount CO2eq we should be allowed to emit per person, per year. Assuming that the average world population from 2020 until 2050 is about 8.3 billion people, this means that each person on Earth has a yearly budget of approximately 2.3 tonnes of CO₂.
How much CO2 ist compatible with that?
In order to get there, models projecting global emission by the UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) compatible with the 2°C objective have been developed. Increases in global mean temperature are almost directly proportional to cumulative carbon dioxide emissions. This leads to the simple yet very important conclusion: There is a maximum amount of carbon dioxide emissions – or a global CO2 budget – that can be discharged to the atmosphere over time if we wish to stay within a 2°C or any other global warming limit.
Stated in the 2019 IPCC report, we have a global budget of roughly 580 billion tonnes of CO₂ left until the year 2050 (starting calculation in 2020). This amount includes all major greenhouse gas emissions converted into CO2 equivalents for allowing calculations on a common baseline.
How are we doing?
However, based on the updated report by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) in 2019, the goal of 2°C is in fact not sufficient enough for a sustainable development and we should much rather aim for limiting global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C. Secondly, our current track since agreeing on the Paris climate accord three years ago is far from being on track of achieving neither the 2°C and much less the 1.5°C goal (source, video).
Right now, over-emitting is the rule, not the exception.
As an example, the climate impact of one roundtrip flight from Zürich to New York is already equivalent to the sustainable emissions budget accumulated throughout a whole year.
This yearly budget includes emissions caused by your housing (heating, electricity source and usage, etc.), diet style (form meat lover to vegan), mode of transport (commuting, all travel), product and service consumption. Accordingly, the budget is quickly overdrawn. For example, in Switzerland, the consumption-based greenhouse gas footprint amounted to 14 tonnes of CO2eq per person during the year 2015.
What can I do?
Reducing emissions means doing something less emission intensively or just doing it less overall.
Keep in mind the scale of the impact.
Often the easier and first step to reduce emissions is switching to a more sustainable option. Less carbon intensive options for housing and modes of transport (electrical cars, buses and trains) are available through electricity supply by renewable energy like solar, wind or hydro power. However, there is no sustainable alternative for emissions by air travel available yet, so the solution to reduce emissions here is simply to fly less.
As sensible as it is to shorten your hot shower, unplug your electronic devices or switching to energy efficient light bulbs, small scale changes will only deliver small scale results. Targeting just one large part of your own footprint may be much more fruitful. It all starts with figuring out how much you’re emitting right now and what the main driver of your high emissions are. Usually highest on the list are far away vacations, a meat intense diet and unsustainable housing choices.
In conclusion, lowering your carbon footprint requires a mix of both technological changes as well as altering your behavior and perception of what impact your actions have on you, this planets climate, and the state of the world we leave for next generations.
How Travelhero calculated your CO2-Footprint
As all our data so far is country-based, we selected the busiest airports by passenger traffic in each country as reference points. For calculating the CO2 emitted by your travel, we used the calculation tool from atmosfair, chose a round-trip (you probably have to get back again at some point), and wherever possible a non-stop flight in economy class (who can afford the fancy stuff anyway?).
This calculation baseline means losing a certain amount of accuracy. Our plan is to provide precise information for you at some point, but we’re not quite there yet and have to live with approximations.
For example, flying from Europe to Sydney or to Perth in Australia differs by more than 1 ton of CO2 emitted. But it is more likely that travelers on our site looking for information on Australia are intending to fly to Sydney, as there are 44 million passengers going through Sydney Airport compared to 13 million in Perth.