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‘Act on CO2’ calculator launched

  • Published: Wednesday, 20 June 2007

An online calculator that enables people to work out their carbon footprint using government-recognised data and calculations was launched by Environment Secretary David Miliband at an eco-friendly internet café in Central London today.

Using the calculator, people can reliably calculate their carbon footprint from home energy, appliances and transport, and choose to calculate either their own personal footprint or their household’s. The calculator then develops a personalised action plan for users, with steps they can take to cut their emissions.

"People can work out the impact of their actions and, with the tailored recommendations provided by the calculator, identify the best way to reduce their footprint"

Mr Miliband said:

“Around two thirds of people are already taking action to try to limit climate change – but there is a lot of confusion about what people can do and how effective those changes actually are.

“We want to cut through that, and this carbon calculator is one of the ways they can do this – and be sure it will make a difference.  Using it, people can work out the impact of their actions and, with the tailored recommendations provided by the calculator, identify the best way to reduce their footprint.

“This calculator is a real innovation – using up-to-date, authoritative data and recognised calculation methods. As the calculator improves and develops, I want it to become the gold standard for calculating CO2 emissions from individuals and families.”

The Act on CO2 calculator includes a range of features, including:

  • the ability to customise to an individual or household
  • three areas of lifestyle – home, electrical appliances, and personal travel – brought together in one calculator
  • advice tailored to the information people give the calculator, rather than giving generic CO2-saving tips
  • recommendations on reducing and avoiding energy waste, not just offsetting it
  • reliable, transparent and regularly updated data

The software that runs calculator’s ‘engine’, complete with the government data, will be made freely available under general public licence, to enable others wanting to use the software to power their own calculators, using their own branding .

Recent research commissioned by Defra has shown that 94% of people in Britain now believe that the world’s climate is changing and 57% believe that we are already feeling the impacts of climate change.  66% of people surveyed said they were already trying to take personal action to try to limit climate change.

The calculator is a public ‘trial’ or beta version, and there are plans to develop and improve it using feedback and ideas from users. Further updates of the calculator will be released over the next few months with the addition of more features to make it even easier for people to calculate their carbon footprint.

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