Some information to help
Carbon calculators used:
- Atmosfair. A German website that sells offsets and has an air travel calculator at https://www.atmosfair.de/en/kompensieren/flug
- Carbon Footprint. An British website that sells offsets and has a number of carbon calculators at http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx; click the “Flights” tab
Carbon calculators vary in sophistication. For instance, Atmosfair’s climate impact calculator includes both the impact of carbon dioxide and methane emissions (“carbon equivalent”) as well as non-carbon emissions such as contrails and ozone. Please note I am not advocating buying their carbon offsets.
Keep in mind:
- 5 metric tons annual carbon footprint of a person on earth (closer to optimal)
- 8 metric tons average for a UK citizen
- 18 metric tons average for a US citizen
(Sourced from the World Bank website at data.worldbank.org. The numbers are from 2010 and rounded for ease of remembering)
All carbon footprints below include radiative forcing.
Per-person estimates for non-stop economy round-trip flights in US:
- San Francisco to New York City: 1.3 metric tons
- Boston to Miami: 0.6 metric ton
- Seattle to Miami: 1.3 metric tons
The carbon usage is higher with intermediate stops because aircraft use a lot of fuel climbing to their cruising altitude.
- Portland OR to New York City (non-stop economy round-trip): 1.2 metric tons
- With one intermediate stop in Chicago (not uncommon!): 2.5 metric tons
Per-person estimates for non-stop economy round-trip international flights:
- Seattle to Amsterdam: 2.4 metric tons
- Los Angeles to Guangzhou: 3.5 metric tons
- New York City to Melbourne: 5.0 metric tons
Since business and first class passengers use more room than economy passengers, their per-person carbon-equivalent estimates are proportionally greater. For example:
New York City to Melbourne:
- economy: 5.0 metric tons
- business: 14.6 metric tons
- first: 20.1 metric tons
A RESOURCE ABOUT GREENER TRAVEL: