Fill in your yearly transport, home heating, diet, and general consumption habits to get an estimate of your carbon footprint in tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year (tCO2e/year).
Transport
Housing
Diet
Goods and consumption
| Reference | Value (tCO2e/year) |
|---|---|
| UK average (about 8.5 tCO2e/year/person, DEFRA-based estimate) | - |
| Paris Agreement target by 2050 | 2 |
This is a simplified estimate based on average emission factors for each category. It does not replace a complete carbon assessment carried out with a certified methodology such as the GHG Protocol or DEFRA conversion factors, and actual emissions depend heavily on your exact habits, local energy mix, and product supply chains.
The average carbon footprint in the UK and why it matters
A personal carbon footprint adds up the greenhouse gas emissions caused by an individual's transport, home energy use, food, and general consumption over a year, expressed in tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e), a unit that converts other gases such as methane into the warming effect of the same mass of CO2. Estimates for the average UK resident vary by method and by which supply-chain emissions are counted, but commonly sit between 5.5 and 8.5 tCO2e per year according to DEFRA greenhouse gas conversion factors and academic consumption-based studies (2023-2024 figures), a level well above the roughly 2 tCO2e per year per person the Paris Agreement implies as a global fair share by 2050 to keep warming under 1.5C. This calculator breaks the estimate into transport, housing, diet, and consumption so you can see which habits contribute the most, and it uses the UK electricity grid mix (increasingly gas and wind) as the default assumption for electric heating and cars.
Emission factors used in this estimate
| Item | Approximate factor | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Petrol car | 0.193 kgCO2e/km | DEFRA average car factor |
| Diesel car | 0.176 kgCO2e/km | DEFRA average car factor |
| Electric car | 0.060 kgCO2e/km | UK grid electricity mix, well-to-wheel |
| Short-haul flight | 0.258 kgCO2e/km per passenger | Includes radiative forcing uplift |
| Long-haul flight | 0.152 kgCO2e/km per passenger | Includes radiative forcing uplift |
| Bus or train | 0.035 kgCO2e/km | Average UK public transport occupancy |
| Gas heating | 30 kgCO2e/m2/year | Average UK dwelling gas use |
| Meat-daily diet | 2.5 tCO2e/year | UK diet-related food emissions studies |
What this calculator cannot do
This tool gives a simplified estimate, not a full carbon assessment. It uses average national emission factors rather than the exact carbon intensity of your electricity supplier, the specific model of your car or aircraft, or the origin of the food and goods you buy, all of which can shift the real figure noticeably in either direction. It also does not account for one-off large purchases, home renovation, or the indirect emissions from public services and infrastructure that a full GHG Protocol scope 1, 2, and 3 assessment would include. Treat the result as a starting point for spotting your largest sources of emissions, not as a certified figure for offsetting or reporting purposes. For a related household calculation, the Electrical Load Calculator can help estimate the power draw behind your electricity bill.
A worked example
Someone driving a petrol car 10,000 km a year (10,000 x 0.193 = 1.93 tCO2e), taking one short-haul return flight of 2,000 km (2,000 x 0.258 = 0.52 tCO2e), heating an 80 m2 gas-heated flat (80 x 30 / 1000 = 2.4 tCO2e), eating meat daily (2.5 tCO2e), and keeping a medium consumption level (1.6 tCO2e) reaches a total of about 8.95 tCO2e per year, close to the UK average. Cutting the flight and switching to an occasional-meat diet would bring that estimate down by roughly 1.3 tCO2e per year, which shows how transport and diet choices tend to move the total the most for a typical household.