What is a carbon footprint? And how can you find out yours?
Here at WLR, we are helping our listeners, and people across Waterford, think more about their impact on climate, and how best to reduce our carbon emissions.
Ours to Protect is a collaboration of local and regional broadcasters from across the country who have come together to tackle climate change, champion climate action, and inform and educate audiences all over Ireland about how they can make a difference.
As the impacts of climate change are experienced by people around the globe, one of the main tools you can use to help monitor your impact is a Carbon Calculator.
Carbon Footprint
Your carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) that are generated by your actions.
Reducing emissions slows the rate of temperature rise, sea-level rise, ice melting, and ocean acidification.
According to the Central Statistics Office, in 2018, Ireland ranked seventh worst out of 28 EU Member States in terms of its total greenhouse gas emissions at 89.0. This result was relative to the base year of 2005=100.
A carbon footprint is a "certain amount of gaseous emissions that are relevant to climate change and associated with human production or consumption activities".
So, what activities do people in Ireland do on a daily basis that can contribute to their Carbon Footprint?
Commuting to work, their diet, their energy sources at home, and much more.
Ireland's Emissions
They also found that Ireland had the third worst emissions of greenhouse gases per capita in the EU at 12.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per capita.
Ireland’s emissions were 53% higher than the EU28 average of 8.2 tonnes.
The transport share of greenhouse gas emissions increased from 9.3% in 1990 to 20.1% in 2018.
The energy sector’s share of greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 was the third largest sectoral contributor to emissions with 17.4% of the total.
Renewable energy sources used in transport have grown from an average annual 0.1% of total transport energy consumption in 2006 to 7.2% in 2018.
Biodiesel accounted for 88% of renewable energy sources used in transport in 2018 (see Table 7.5).
Renewable energy accounted for 33.2% of electricity generation in Ireland in 2018, close to the EU28 average of 32.1%
To find out your Carbon Footprint, visit footprintcalculator.org.
