How big is your footprint?

The UK Government is releasing an ‘official website’ to tell Britons how much much carbon dioxide they are each producing and how to cut it.

In NZ we can also calculate our carbon footprints with the following:

http://www.contactenergy.co.nz
http://www.carbonzero.co.nz

There was one at MFE but it’s offline undergoing a refit.

Anyone know of any other NZ based calculators?

An official calculator that enables every person in Britain to work out how much they are contributing to global warming will be launched by the government this week.

The special website will calculate how people’s home heating, appliances and personal transport add to the carbon emissions blamed for causing climate change.

The calculator, conceived by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), will allow people to work out how much carbon they produce at home, when duriving and when flying. Questions range from whether homes are insulated to how they dry their clothes and how much water people put in their kettle for a cup of tea.

Users will be able to compare their results to the UK average, and then be given ‘tailored’ advice about how to reduce their energy use and emissions.

Other organisations already publish similar tools on the internet, but new research for Defra has revealed widespread public confusion about whether and how they can help tackle climate change.

The poll of more than 3,000 adults, conducted by ICM Research, found that two thirds of people believe climate change is entirely or mainly a result of human behaviour, but only one in five correctly named carbon dioxide as the main problem, and nearly one in 10 said they could have no influence on limiting the damage.

There was also uncertainty about what were the best things to do to cut carbon emissions - half said they should recycle more, one-third suggested driving less and only four per cent thought they should fly less often. Ministers hope a more detailed calculator and personalised recommendations will help to rectify such uncertainty.

‘Just as people are increasingly looking for advice in areas of their life like fitness, diet or lifestyle, we need to give them this support in reducing their carbon footprint,’ said David Miliband, the Environment Secretary. ‘I hope that in time it will come to be seen as the gold standard for carbon calculators.’

Environment campaigners will welcome any move to encourage people to think about reducing energy use, but there is likely to be some concern about how many areas of life are omitted from the calculations. These include food consumption, public transport and the overall share of emissions generated by public services - from street lights to schools and health care to military spending.

The UK average ‘carbon footprint’ for the activities covered by the calculator is 4.48 tonnes of CO2, a little under half of each person’s actual share of the national total.

Martyn Williams, a climate change campaigner for Friends of the Earth, warned that carbon calculators should not be used to suggest that individuals should bear the brunt of changes. ‘They have a tendency to focus on what people can do and they do, to some extent, let the government off the hook,’ he said. ‘For many things people want to do it’s hard unless, for example, government has got a good public transport system.’

James Smith, Shell UK’s chairman, says the next 18 months are critical to getting international agreements in place to reduce carbon emissions. Smith told The Observer: ‘[For] physically slowing the increase in emissions, stopping the increase and reducing emissions, we have got eight or 10 or 15 years - there’s a variety of opinions but not terribly long. But in order for that to happen there’s a lot of policy to put in place.

‘A momentum has been built up - it’s so important we get that momentum maintained over the next 18 months or so.’

Smith said Shell wanted an international agreement on how much emissions would be cut by, an international carbon trading system, public funding for new technology, and regulations to set standards for everything from vehicle emissions to building design.