The conundrum of calculating carbon footprints

Bjarne W. Strobel, Anders Christian Erichsen, Quentin Gausset

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Abstract

A pre-condition for reducing global warming is to minimise the emission of greenhouse gasses (GHGs). A common approach to informing people about the link between behaviour and climate change rests on developing GHG calculators that quantify the ‘carbon footprint’ of a product, a sector or an actor. There is, however, an abundance of GHG calculators that rely on very different premises and give very different estimates of carbon footprints. In this chapter, we compare and analyse the main principles of calculating carbon footprints, and discuss how calculators can inform (or misinform) people who wish to adopt greener behaviour.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCommunity Governance and Citizen-Driven Initiatives in Climate Change Mitigation
EditorsJens Hoff, Quentin Gausset
Number of pages21
PublisherRoutledge
Publication date2015
Pages7-27
Chapter2
ISBN (Print)978-1-138-90109-4
ISBN (Electronic)978-1-315-70029-8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015
SeriesRoutledge Advances in Climate Change Research

Keywords

  • Global warming
  • Green house gas
  • Footprint calculators
  • Behaviour change
  • Climate change
  • carbon footprint

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