Example climate project
Clean water · Uganda
New wells reduce the need to boil water, which protects the forest and cuts emissions.
CO2 emissions and CO2e: what do they mean?
Your CO2 footprint is the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases that can be linked to your lifestyle.
CO2e stands for carbon dioxide equivalent. CO2 is the chemical formula for carbon dioxide, and the "e" means equivalent: other greenhouse gases are converted into the same unit based on how much they warm the climate. It's sometimes written as CO2eq. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is measured in parts per million (ppm), and today it's above 420 ppm.
How to calculate your CO2 emissions
With ClimateHero's CO2 emissions calculator you answer a few simple questions about your habits, for example your flights, your car, the meat you eat and the energy you use at home. It takes about 5 minutes. You then see your yearly emissions in tonnes of CO₂e, what you already do well and where you can cut. The calculator works for the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, the Philippines, India and many other countries.
If you'd like to see the impact of your habits on the climate as a whole, try our climate calculator.
Where your CO2 emissions come from, and how to cut them
Most of the CO₂ we cause day to day comes from burning fossil fuels: petrol and diesel for the car, jet fuel for flights, and gas, oil or coal for the energy we use at home. That's why the changes that cut your CO2 emissions the most are usually in transport and energy.
A few ideas: walk, cycle or take public transport for short trips, share car journeys, skip flights you could avoid, switch to renewable electricity and insulate your home. On the food side, eating less beef mainly cuts methane, which also counts in your CO₂e.
Want to go further? With a monthly subscription, you fund Gold Standard certified climate projects that cut emissions equal to twice what you can't avoid yet. On the results page you can include everyone in your household.