What is the CO2 footprint?
The carbon footprint is a tool that helps us to assess our impact on climate change. This can be based on a person, a company or a product. The underlying principle is that people’s activities cause the emission of greenhouse gases, which ultimately contribute to global warming. In practical terms, the carbon footprint is therefore an indicator of the contribution to global warming made by a person, company or product. The concept can be applied to any activity, such as an event, an overnight stay in a hotel or a business trip by car, train or plane.
As there are many different greenhouse gases, this is actually the greenhouse gas footprint. For the sake of simplicity, all greenhouse gases are converted into CO2 equivalents. The other gases are, for example, methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) (What is a carbon footprint?). Ultimately, the carbon footprint is an extremely useful concept that helps to identify potential savings.
The establishment of the CO2 footprint by the BP Group
The CO2 footprint originated from the concept of the ecological footprint. This was developed in 1994 by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees. However, the term was only really established by the oil and gas company BP when it used it for its own purposes. In 2003, the company released an advert in which people on the street were asked about their carbon footprint. At the end of the advert, BP stood for ‘Beyond Petroleum’ instead of the usual ‘British Petroleum’. In 2004, the company published a carbon footprint calculator on its website so that anyone could work out how their daily lives – for example, commuting to work, shopping for food and travelling – affect climate change. In 2006, the slogan of the PR campaign ‘It’s time to go on a low carbon diet’, i.e. ‘It’s time to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions’, was displayed large on the website with a CO2 footprint calculator next to it. The message behind it: We are all to blame for greenhouse gas emissions and the resulting climate change. Nowadays, carbon footprint calculators can be found on the websites of many social and governmental institutions, such as the European Union, the Federal Environment Agency, Greenpeace or the WWF.
It is of course true that everyone can and should make a contribution to reducing climate change. However, the BP company with its huge CO2 footprint has been deliberately pushed into the background by the campaign. The company explained the CO2 footprint as the responsibility of each individual person and at the same time gave the impression that it was already doing something about it itself, as it had launched the campaign to remind us all of our responsibility.
BP’s production activities
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, BP continued with its daily business. As you can see in the graph below, BP’s oil production actually increased after 2003.
In 2018, BP bought massive oil and gas reserves in West Texas. Meanwhile, in the same year, the company endeavoured to showcase its initiatives to invest in lower carbon energy. However, it was actually only 2.3% of total investments.
Criticising the carbon footprint
Although the carbon footprint can certainly show us how we can reduce our emissions, we must also be aware that consumers are only the last link in a very long chain. We have very little influence on how goods are produced and made available. Only the manufacturers and retailers, whose primary aim is to make a profit through sales, have any influence. Researchers from MIT in the United States conducted an interesting study on this in 2008. They found that in the United States, even a homeless person who eats in soup kitchens and sleeps in a homeless shelter indirectly produces 8.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. While this is significantly lower than the average 20 tonnes in the United States at the time, it is still significantly higher than the 4 tonne average for the entire world at the time. The conclusion is that it is only possible to a limited extent to have a low carbon footprint in a carbon-dependent society in order to slow down climate change.
Greenhouse gas emissions in Germany
If we take a closer look at greenhouse gas emissions in Germany by sector in 2022, it quickly becomes clear where most of the emissions come from. The three largest sectors are the energy industry, industry and transport. At 34.3%, the energy sector is significantly more significant than the other two. Industry is in second place with 22% and transport in third place with 19.8%.
The consumer has no direct influence on the energy sector and industry, which leaves transport. Here, the consumer is dependent on alternatives to the car such as trains or public transport. However, the expansion of the infrastructure here still leaves a lot to be desired. In rural regions, seamless and efficient public transport systems are still rare and often offer no alternative to the car. With regard to rail transport, this interactive map shows how the rail network in Germany has been dismantled in recent years. There is also research showing that the existing rail network in Europe is currently not being used in a very customer-friendly way. This interactive map from Greenpeace shows how many of the possible direct connections from major cities are currently being used. For example, Berlin currently offers 19 out of 38 possible direct connections. It is clear that there is a lot of potential to offer more customer-friendly alternatives, as changing trains means longer journey times and expensive tickets. Ultimately, however, even if the consumer is not the one with the most leverage, there are still some simple and worthwhile measures that can be taken to reduce one’s carbon footprint and thus combat climate change.
CO2 footprint and consumers
For consumers, the carbon footprints of everyday objects are mainly relevant, i.e. which objects the consumer buys. For example, a car has a footprint of several tonnes of CO2, while a bicycle has less than 200 kilograms. Regional and seasonal food has a significantly lower impact than food from other continents. According to a 2021 report by Statista, the average greenhouse gas footprint for a German person is 11.17 tonnes and is broken down as follows: Other consumption, such as clothing and leisure activities, accounts for the largest share at 3.79 tonnes. This is followed by housing at 2.04 tonnes and food at 1.69 tonnes.
There are several carbon footprint calculators on the internet that use questions about our everyday life to calculate our carbon footprint. One of the most comprehensive is from WWF (WWF climate calculator) and contains 35 questions covering the areas of nutrition, mobility, heating and energy consumption and consumer behaviour. This makes it clear that consumer decisions do have an impact on the climate. And how can consumers help society and reduce their footprint?
Nutrition
When it comes to nutrition, people who buy a lot of meat, fish and dairy products increase their footprint. The same applies to fruit and vegetables that are not in season or come from a different region. You can improve your footprint if you buy a lot of products labelled organic, Fairtrade and MSC.
Mobility
When it comes to mobility, it is best for the climate to use public transport. When it comes to electric cars and combustion engines, the fact is that although electric cars can drive with low emissions, the production process for the battery leaves a very large carbon footprint. A study by ADAC has shown that an electric car has a climate advantage over combustion engines after 45,000 to 60,000 kilometres. However, there are many factors that can influence this further, including the driving style, the fuel efficiency of the vehicle and which electricity is used. Ultimately, it is sometimes not possible to do without a car or even a combustion engine, but those who have the opportunity should reduce their emissions here.
Energy
When it comes to energy, it depends very much on what kind of heating and hot water system the consumer has and what the energy standard of the building is (unrenovated, renovated, old building, new building, low-energy or passive house). Unfortunately, as a tenant you have no influence on these factors. Otherwise, other aspects also come into play, such as the temperature in the flat, the temperature of the washing cycles, whether a tumble dryer is used and what the energy standards of the appliances are.
Consumption
At the very end is consumption, which has the greatest impact. The main point here is that those who curb their consumption are doing something good for the climate. It is about not regularly buying cheaply produced new clothes or furniture, which household appliances are purchased or which leisure and cultural activities are attended. For example, someone who books a cruise every year and always has the latest clothes and the latest Apple product has a much greater impact.
Instead of constantly buying new clothes, you can go to a second-hand shop or look for a clothes exchange on the internet. The same goes for furniture; you can find lots of it in classified adverts or at flea markets, for example. If you are planning your holiday, you can discover many nearby destinations. For example, kitesurfing is just as good on the Baltic Sea as it is in Morocco. To get to your destination, the Deutschlandticket also offers inexpensive local transport options.
Conclusion
Ultimately, it is clear that the planet is warming up. There is a trend whereby almost every year is warmer than the last. Everyone should do their bit to combat climate change, but it should also be clear to everyone that large corporations such as BP are playing an immense role in the transformation.
BP wanted to use its campaign to deny responsibility for climate change. It would be like a drinks company accusing its customers of polluting the environment by drinking from their bottles, or a tobacco company blaming smokers for becoming addicted to their products. Any contribution to tackling climate change is valuable, but to make the necessary changes we need to look at the bigger picture of greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors. Since we as consumers have very little influence on many sectors, it is important to participate in political elections. In addition, there is the valuable instrument of citizens’ petitions at local level to enforce direct democracy. In this way, we can campaign for comprehensive transformations, because it is crucial that politicians and companies are held accountable in addition to individual action.
