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26 Jan 2025 : How lightly did I tread in 2024 #
We're already well in to 2025 and I've not yet got around to performing my annual carbon audit. This will be my sixth year, and even though the numbers are always closer to the approximate end of the scale, that means it's got to the stage where it's possible to start identifying trends.
Here's all of the data I've accumulated so far, including my carbon footprint for 2024 (i.e. the year to now). This data covers both Joanna and me, so for two people. It's not exactly household data because between 2019 and 2022 we were actually working in different countries, so were technically two households. But since then we've both been living under one roof again.
What can we say about these numbers? The headline result is that this year is joint-lowest on record at 7.73 tonnes of CO2. Lower is better, so this is a result I'm happy about. The other similarly low year was 2021, but that was slap bang in the middle of the pandemic, so rather a special case.
This year has been a relatively "normal" year, for some understanding of normal. If you account for the pandemic, I'd argue there's a good trend in the numbers: a decline from the high of 14.47 tonnes of CO2 in 2019 to nearly half that amount this year.
To understand why, it helps to look at the numbers that have gone in to the calculation.
As you can see, the biggest behavioural change has been a reduction in flying. This is partly — but not entirely — due to a change in circumstances. While living in Finland I was never able to find a practical alternative to flying between there and the UK (the shortest ferry and train alternative was a three-day trip). Now I'm in the UK I'm no longer making this regular journey. On top of that one of my 2024 new year's resolutions was to make twelve ecological improvements to my life. Avoiding flights was one of those and thankfully Joanna has been incredibly supportive in making this happen.
Despite this restrictions we did get to travel on holiday in 2024, but strictly by train and ferry. Avoiding flights did also impact my work plans and I'm grateful to my colleagues for also being supportive. I'm glad I was able to stick to this and the results are, I think, clear.
That's not the only story in these numbers. You can also now start to see the impact that switching from gas central heating to an air-source heat pump in 2022 has made. Natural gas usage has dropped right down (we still have a gas cooker, but I'm hoping to change that). The combined power usage, measured in kWh, is substantially lower after the change, giving an indication of the improved efficiency.
As a side note, it may seem odd that gas usage in 2023 was negative. That's due to our energy company not predicting the change caused by the heat pump and having to give us a rebate on anticipated gas usage. It's not ideal for the numbers, but I couldn't think of a better way to deal with it.
Another thing that's become clear is how much impact the pandemic had on our energy use. The four flights I took in 2021 were completely offset by other carbon outputs when compared to last year, when I took no flights at all. The pandemic really did hit the world hard.
As always I've used these numbers to offset my carbon output for last year, using the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to support cooking stoves in Malawi. To be honest, I don't know whether this really makes a real difference to my climate impact, but it feels like a good cause either way.
More importantly, it's becoming clear that these annual audits have genuinely affected my behaviour, which in the longer term, may be the bigger win.
To generate the carbon output numbers above I used Carbon Footprint Ltd's carbon calculator. According to the same site, the average worldwide carbon footprint per person is about 4.79 tonnes. Taking into account the fact Joanna and I are two people, that now puts us below the average for the first time. It's a pretty clear conclusion, at least for our lifestyles: to really make a big difference, stop taking the plane.
Here's all of the data I've accumulated so far, including my carbon footprint for 2024 (i.e. the year to now). This data covers both Joanna and me, so for two people. It's not exactly household data because between 2019 and 2022 we were actually working in different countries, so were technically two households. But since then we've both been living under one roof again.
| Source (CO2 tonnes) | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity | 0.50 | 0.40 | 0.59 | 1.14 | 1.66 | 1.37 |
| Natural gas | 1.18 | 1.26 | 1.66 | 0.81 | -0.25 | 0.02 |
| Flights | 5.76 | 2.26 | 1.90 | 5.34 | 1.32 | 0.00 |
| Car | 1.45 | 0.39 | 0.39 | 1.01 | 1.00 | 1.12 |
| Bus | 0.00 | 0.01 | 0.02 | 0.01 | 0.31 | 0.22 |
| National rail | 0.08 | 0.01 | 0.02 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.47 |
| International rail | 0.02 | 0.01 | 0.00 | 0.04 | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Coach | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.03 |
| Taxi | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Food and drink | 1.69 | 1.11 | 1.05 | 1.35 | 1.07 | 1.07 |
| Pharmaceuticals | 0.26 | 0.32 | 0.31 | 0.06 | 0.13 | 0.13 |
| Clothing | 0.03 | 0.06 | 0.06 | 0.12 | 0.23 | 0.23 |
| Paper-based products | 0.34 | 0.15 | 0.14 | 0.37 | 0.38 | 0.38 |
| Computer usage | 1.30 | 1.48 | 0.75 | 0.93 | 0.23 | 0.23 |
| Electrical | 0.12 | 0.29 | 0.19 | 0.03 | 0.01 | 0.03 |
| Non-fuel car | 0.00 | 0.10 | 0.00 | 0.12 | 0.92 | 0.92 |
| Manufactured goods | 0.50 | 0.03 | 0.03 | 0.05 | 0.11 | 0.11 |
| Hotels, restaurants | 0.51 | 0.16 | 0.15 | 0.10 | 1.21 | 1.21 |
| Telecoms | 0.15 | 0.05 | 0.04 | 0.03 | 0.05 | 0.05 |
| Finance | 0.24 | 0.24 | 0.22 | 0.04 | 0.02 | 0.00 |
| Insurance | 0.19 | 0.11 | 0.10 | 0.04 | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Education | 0.05 | 0.00 | 0.04 | 0.01 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Recreation | 0.09 | 0.06 | 0.05 | 0.03 | 0.06 | 0.06 |
| Total | 14.47 | 8.50 | 7.73 | 11.65 | 9.25 | 7.73 |
What can we say about these numbers? The headline result is that this year is joint-lowest on record at 7.73 tonnes of CO2. Lower is better, so this is a result I'm happy about. The other similarly low year was 2021, but that was slap bang in the middle of the pandemic, so rather a special case.
This year has been a relatively "normal" year, for some understanding of normal. If you account for the pandemic, I'd argue there's a good trend in the numbers: a decline from the high of 14.47 tonnes of CO2 in 2019 to nearly half that amount this year.
To understand why, it helps to look at the numbers that have gone in to the calculation.
| Source | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity | 1 794 kWh | 1 427 kWh | 3 009 kWh | 4 101 kWh | 5 975 kWh | 4 947 kWh |
| Natural gas | 6 433 kWh | 6 869 kWh | 9 089 kWh | 4 439 kWh | -1 362 kWh | 136 kWh |
| Flights |
36 580 km 20 flights |
14 632 km 8 flights |
25 542 km 14 flights |
36 042 km 20 flights |
7 233 km 4 flights |
0 km 0 flights |
| Car | 11 910 km | 2 000 km | 3 219 km | 8 458 km | 8 369 km | 9 364 km |
| Bus | 1 930 km | 40 km | 168 km | 133 km | 3 080 km | 2 065 km |
| National rail | 5 630 km | 400 km | 676 km | 0 km | 19 638 km | 13 184 km |
| International rail | 64 km | 1 368 km | 513 km | 8 684 km | 2 322 km | 1 914 km |
| Coach | 0 km | 0 km | 0 km | 0 km | 0 km | 1 200 km |
| Taxi | 64 km | 37 km | 100 km | 100 km | 100 km | 100 km |
| Tube | 0 km | 0 km | 0 km | 0 km | 100 km | 100 km |
As you can see, the biggest behavioural change has been a reduction in flying. This is partly — but not entirely — due to a change in circumstances. While living in Finland I was never able to find a practical alternative to flying between there and the UK (the shortest ferry and train alternative was a three-day trip). Now I'm in the UK I'm no longer making this regular journey. On top of that one of my 2024 new year's resolutions was to make twelve ecological improvements to my life. Avoiding flights was one of those and thankfully Joanna has been incredibly supportive in making this happen.
Despite this restrictions we did get to travel on holiday in 2024, but strictly by train and ferry. Avoiding flights did also impact my work plans and I'm grateful to my colleagues for also being supportive. I'm glad I was able to stick to this and the results are, I think, clear.
That's not the only story in these numbers. You can also now start to see the impact that switching from gas central heating to an air-source heat pump in 2022 has made. Natural gas usage has dropped right down (we still have a gas cooker, but I'm hoping to change that). The combined power usage, measured in kWh, is substantially lower after the change, giving an indication of the improved efficiency.
As a side note, it may seem odd that gas usage in 2023 was negative. That's due to our energy company not predicting the change caused by the heat pump and having to give us a rebate on anticipated gas usage. It's not ideal for the numbers, but I couldn't think of a better way to deal with it.
Another thing that's become clear is how much impact the pandemic had on our energy use. The four flights I took in 2021 were completely offset by other carbon outputs when compared to last year, when I took no flights at all. The pandemic really did hit the world hard.
As always I've used these numbers to offset my carbon output for last year, using the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to support cooking stoves in Malawi. To be honest, I don't know whether this really makes a real difference to my climate impact, but it feels like a good cause either way.
More importantly, it's becoming clear that these annual audits have genuinely affected my behaviour, which in the longer term, may be the bigger win.
To generate the carbon output numbers above I used Carbon Footprint Ltd's carbon calculator. According to the same site, the average worldwide carbon footprint per person is about 4.79 tonnes. Taking into account the fact Joanna and I are two people, that now puts us below the average for the first time. It's a pretty clear conclusion, at least for our lifestyles: to really make a big difference, stop taking the plane.
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