CO₂ Emission Calculator
Annual CO₂ footprint from driving, electricity, cooking gas and flights, with tree offset.
What it does
Adds up the CO₂ from driving, electricity, cooking gas and flights into a yearly footprint, and shows how many trees would offset it.
Where it's used
Understanding your personal or household carbon footprint.
How to use it
- Choose whether you enter monthly or yearly values.
- Enter driving distance, fuel and mileage.
- Enter electricity, LPG / gas use and flight hours.
- Set your grid’s CO₂ factor if you know it.
The formula explained
- Petrol
- ≈ 2.31 kg CO₂ per litre
- Diesel
- ≈ 2.68 kg CO₂ per litre
- LPG
- ≈ 2.98 kg CO₂ per kg
- Grid factor
- kg CO₂ per kWh — varies by country
Worked example
Inputs:
- Values entered per: Month
- Car distance: 1500 km
- Car fuel: Diesel
- Car mileage: 18 km/L
- Electricity use: 300 kWh
- Grid CO₂ intensity: 0.71 kg/kWh
- LPG: 14.2 kg
- Piped natural gas: 0 m³
- Flight hours: 0 h
The calculator gives:
- Total CO₂ per year: 5.74 t CO₂
- Trees to offset: 264 trees
- Per month: 479 kg
Tips and common mistakes
- Flights often dominate the footprint of frequent travellers.
- Grid factors fall as renewables grow — use a recent figure for your region.
- Tree offsets are rough averages; reducing use matters more.
Questions people ask
What emission factors are used?
About 2.31 kg of CO₂ per litre of petrol, 2.68 kg per litre of diesel and about 3 kg per kg of LPG, plus your grid’s figure per kWh of electricity. The example works out at about 479 kg a month.
How many trees offset a tonne of CO₂?
The calculator assumes a growing tree takes up roughly 22 kg of CO₂ a year, so about 46 trees per tonne per year. Real figures vary widely with species, age and climate.
Where should I start cutting?
With the biggest share. In the example, driving and electricity are almost equal at about 220 kg a month each, so a more efficient car, fewer kilometres or solar panels would each make a real difference.
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Enter your values to get the result with the formula, substituted values and an explanation of each step.