UK Government Unveil Definitive Footprint Calulator

There are hundreds of footprint calculators online, and that means that one can calculate hundreds of different totals. The UK Government has unveiled the calculator to rule them all, which makes use of their recognised data. It’s designed to cut through the confusion often caused when trying to discover a person’s footprint.

The site calculates a persons energy use and emissions, but also provides a kind of action plan, a set of ideas on how to reduce that figure. The Environment Secretary, David Miliband, rather cheesily launched the site at an Internet café in London, "there is a lot of confusion about what people can do and how effective those changes actually are," he said, "This carbon calculator will help people decide what they can do, and be sure it will make a difference."

Miliband appeared on television in the UK, and claimed that he had used the site to calculate his own footprint, at a rather low 2.76 tonnes. The average figure in the UK is 4 tonnes, so I find this rather hard to believe. "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 Guardian