La huella de carbono personal es una herramienta, que permite al individuo evaluar sus emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero. Nacida bajo el liderazgo de Jean-Marc Jancovici, ha sido puesta en línea en 2007 por ADEME") y el Clima Futures Association. Permite que cualquier persona pueda calcular con precisión las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero inducidas por sus acciones, y por lo tanto su participación en el calentamiento global en todos los ámbitos de su vida.

La calculadora personal de la huella de carbono tiene todo en cuenta, "desde las compras de calzado a las vacaciones esquiando, pasando por la calefacción y la carne que se consume.[19]​.

Description

With, typically, your annual gas bill, electricity bill, your (approximate) plane and car mileage (the website has a list of city-to-city distances from around the world), and with your consumption of food, products and services, the site allows you to know all the details of your own greenhouse gas emissions (including the methane emitted by raising the animals that are consumed).

The site first allows, if desired, to create an alias to protect the information, which is useful if you want to correct some of the emissions later to, for example, compare the effectiveness of the planned efforts.

Questionnaire

The questionnaire is divided into 4 parts, which for an average citizen, each corresponds to 1/4 of greenhouse gas emissions.

Other initiatives in the world

There are other similar initiatives in the world, such as in the United Kingdom with the site "Actonco2"[20]​ or the United States with the page "Personal Emissions Calculator".[21]​.

The personal carbon footprint allows all aspects of an individual's life to be taken into account, and in detail, not only to calculate CO₂ emissions, but of all greenhouse gases, and this with a deviation calculated for each part. Which allows the person to have a global vision of their participation in global warming.[23][24]​.

In Argentina, work has been done on the calculation and registration of the carbon footprint in different attempts. The advances are timid but are well oriented, some of them available on the website of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development "Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible (Argentina)"), such as the National Inventory of Greenhouse Gases.[25]​.

Problems, perspectives

This type of tool is still based on average extrapolations and will surely be improved in the future.

For example, in the footprint of Internet use: The carbon footprint on the Internet of a search through a search engine like Google varies today from 2 to 7 g (calculated by Alex Wissner-Gross of Harvard University, physicist, author of the project *« CO2stat,[26]​"*which calculates the impact of a website according to the power of its server&action=edit&redlink=1 "Server (Internet) (not yet redacted)") and the number of visitors, offering its clients the compensatory purchase equivalent to the energy consumed by the site (a source of clean and safe electrical energy; solar or wind).

For a Google search or a page visit, Internet consumption actually varies greatly depending on various factors (including the presence of video, animation or multiplayer game; the personal computer consumes the most, followed by data exchange (depending on distance, and the support (fiber optic or not), the operation of servers, and data centers).

The computer thus becomes a source of greenhouse gases. This however has to be weighed against the positive impact of the network in terms of transmission and in avoiding emissions of other greenhouse gases thanks to teleworking or collaborative work.

This method evaluates the emissions generated by the entire production process of a product or service. In some cases, it also takes into account its use or the activities carried out during the service. This approach has had a great impact in Europe and Japan and lately in exporting countries, since they are places where the production of goods is very high.

The carbon footprints of products must be associated with a scope or limit, the most common being:.

According to the Ministry of the Environment of Chile, one of the methodologies to carry out an evaluation of the carbon footprint of a product or service is the specifications for the evaluation of the life cycle of greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services (PAS 2050:2011) developed by the BSI Group at the request of the United Kingdom Government.[28]​.

Another very important focus is events that take place anytime, anywhere. For this, factors such as transportation, preparation of materials, energy sources used, final waste, number of people who participated, etc. are evaluated. These types of evaluations are important to be able to evaluate the impact that these activities generate on the environment before, during and after their implementation. The current trend among event organizers, from large events such as concerts to small ones such as an exhibition, is to try to reduce their impact by participating in foundations or donating money to bonds or projects dedicated to reducing CO₂. This can also provide a certificate to the same event as a "Carbon Neutral Event".

There are also events that are held with carbon reduction themes or objectives which help neutralize the emissions of other events.

A calculation of the carbon footprint in a territorial approach is simply an evaluation of a delimited area either geographically or politically-administratively, an example of this would be studies concentrated in urban regions of a specific community or country.[29]​ These types of evaluations help us to generate the emission of larger or general areas such as the global impact.

These types of calculations can also be generated through formulas. As an example, there is a formula presented in the document Calculation Methodology for the National Footprint Accounts to calculate the carbon footprint globally.[30]​ The formula is as follows:.

In which P is the annual production of CO emissions, S is the fraction of anthropogenic emissions (produced by human activities, which is sequestered by the oceans in a year), Y is the total amount of carbon absorbed per hectare of available forest, and EQF is an equivalence factor for the country, the year, and the type of land use. The annual production of P emissions is calculated by adding, using some mathematical model, the various factors that affect the production of GHG, similar to the model of the following equation:

In which Xi and Yi are conversion and equivalence factors that will depend on the type of application (HdC of the product, of a company, of a service, of a home) and magnitude (local, regional, or country) and the influence of the variable Fi (airplane or car transportation, use of coal or natural gas, direct or indirect emissions, kilometers traveled, among many others).[31]​.

In this approach, it evaluates the procedure and result of raw material production, whether it was efficient, sustainable and how much pollution or gas emissions it produces at the end of production. This will help create alternatives or competitive advantages to make the raw materials process more efficient and more sustainable.

Critics of the idea of ​​the carbon footprint maintain that the original objective of promoting the concept of a personal carbon footprint was to divert responsibility from corporations and institutions towards personal lifestyle choices.[32]​[33]​ There are those who directly maintain that "it was and continues to be a farce", aimed at making people believe that individually a solution can be found to a global problem. Thus, the 1% have been responsible for "more than double" the carbon pollution generated by the 3.1 billion poorest people on the planet.[34]​.

For example, the fossil fuel company BP had run a large advertising campaign on personal carbon footprint in 2005 that helped popularize this concept. According to critical voices, this strategy, also used by other major fossil fuel companies, tries to place the blame for the negative consequences of these industries on individual decisions.[32]​.

La huella de carbono personal es una herramienta, que permite al individuo evaluar sus emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero. Nacida bajo el liderazgo de Jean-Marc Jancovici, ha sido puesta en línea en 2007 por ADEME") y el Clima Futures Association. Permite que cualquier persona pueda calcular con precisión las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero inducidas por sus acciones, y por lo tanto su participación en el calentamiento global en todos los ámbitos de su vida.

La calculadora personal de la huella de carbono tiene todo en cuenta, "desde las compras de calzado a las vacaciones esquiando, pasando por la calefacción y la carne que se consume.[19]​.

Description

With, typically, your annual gas bill, electricity bill, your (approximate) plane and car mileage (the website has a list of city-to-city distances from around the world), and with your consumption of food, products and services, the site allows you to know all the details of your own greenhouse gas emissions (including the methane emitted by raising the animals that are consumed).

The site first allows, if desired, to create an alias to protect the information, which is useful if you want to correct some of the emissions later to, for example, compare the effectiveness of the planned efforts.

Questionnaire

The questionnaire is divided into 4 parts, which for an average citizen, each corresponds to 1/4 of greenhouse gas emissions.

Other initiatives in the world

There are other similar initiatives in the world, such as in the United Kingdom with the site "Actonco2"[20]​ or the United States with the page "Personal Emissions Calculator".[21]​.

The personal carbon footprint allows all aspects of an individual's life to be taken into account, and in detail, not only to calculate CO₂ emissions, but of all greenhouse gases, and this with a deviation calculated for each part. Which allows the person to have a global vision of their participation in global warming.[23][24]​.

In Argentina, work has been done on the calculation and registration of the carbon footprint in different attempts. The advances are timid but are well oriented, some of them available on the website of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development "Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible (Argentina)"), such as the National Inventory of Greenhouse Gases.[25]​.

Problems, perspectives

This type of tool is still based on average extrapolations and will surely be improved in the future.

For example, in the footprint of Internet use: The carbon footprint on the Internet of a search through a search engine like Google varies today from 2 to 7 g (calculated by Alex Wissner-Gross of Harvard University, physicist, author of the project *« CO2stat,[26]​"*which calculates the impact of a website according to the power of its server&action=edit&redlink=1 "Server (Internet) (not yet redacted)") and the number of visitors, offering its clients the compensatory purchase equivalent to the energy consumed by the site (a source of clean and safe electrical energy; solar or wind).

For a Google search or a page visit, Internet consumption actually varies greatly depending on various factors (including the presence of video, animation or multiplayer game; the personal computer consumes the most, followed by data exchange (depending on distance, and the support (fiber optic or not), the operation of servers, and data centers).

The computer thus becomes a source of greenhouse gases. This however has to be weighed against the positive impact of the network in terms of transmission and in avoiding emissions of other greenhouse gases thanks to teleworking or collaborative work.

This method evaluates the emissions generated by the entire production process of a product or service. In some cases, it also takes into account its use or the activities carried out during the service. This approach has had a great impact in Europe and Japan and lately in exporting countries, since they are places where the production of goods is very high.

The carbon footprints of products must be associated with a scope or limit, the most common being:.

According to the Ministry of the Environment of Chile, one of the methodologies to carry out an evaluation of the carbon footprint of a product or service is the specifications for the evaluation of the life cycle of greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services (PAS 2050:2011) developed by the BSI Group at the request of the United Kingdom Government.[28]​.

Another very important focus is events that take place anytime, anywhere. For this, factors such as transportation, preparation of materials, energy sources used, final waste, number of people who participated, etc. are evaluated. These types of evaluations are important to be able to evaluate the impact that these activities generate on the environment before, during and after their implementation. The current trend among event organizers, from large events such as concerts to small ones such as an exhibition, is to try to reduce their impact by participating in foundations or donating money to bonds or projects dedicated to reducing CO₂. This can also provide a certificate to the same event as a "Carbon Neutral Event".

There are also events that are held with carbon reduction themes or objectives which help neutralize the emissions of other events.

A calculation of the carbon footprint in a territorial approach is simply an evaluation of a delimited area either geographically or politically-administratively, an example of this would be studies concentrated in urban regions of a specific community or country.[29]​ These types of evaluations help us to generate the emission of larger or general areas such as the global impact.

These types of calculations can also be generated through formulas. As an example, there is a formula presented in the document Calculation Methodology for the National Footprint Accounts to calculate the carbon footprint globally.[30]​ The formula is as follows:.

In which P is the annual production of CO emissions, S is the fraction of anthropogenic emissions (produced by human activities, which is sequestered by the oceans in a year), Y is the total amount of carbon absorbed per hectare of available forest, and EQF is an equivalence factor for the country, the year, and the type of land use. The annual production of P emissions is calculated by adding, using some mathematical model, the various factors that affect the production of GHG, similar to the model of the following equation:

In which Xi and Yi are conversion and equivalence factors that will depend on the type of application (HdC of the product, of a company, of a service, of a home) and magnitude (local, regional, or country) and the influence of the variable Fi (airplane or car transportation, use of coal or natural gas, direct or indirect emissions, kilometers traveled, among many others).[31]​.

In this approach, it evaluates the procedure and result of raw material production, whether it was efficient, sustainable and how much pollution or gas emissions it produces at the end of production. This will help create alternatives or competitive advantages to make the raw materials process more efficient and more sustainable.

Critics of the idea of ​​the carbon footprint maintain that the original objective of promoting the concept of a personal carbon footprint was to divert responsibility from corporations and institutions towards personal lifestyle choices.[32]​[33]​ There are those who directly maintain that "it was and continues to be a farce", aimed at making people believe that individually a solution can be found to a global problem. Thus, the 1% have been responsible for "more than double" the carbon pollution generated by the 3.1 billion poorest people on the planet.[34]​.

For example, the fossil fuel company BP had run a large advertising campaign on personal carbon footprint in 2005 that helped popularize this concept. According to critical voices, this strategy, also used by other major fossil fuel companies, tries to place the blame for the negative consequences of these industries on individual decisions.[32]​.