Your footprint is the starting point for everything else on this site. Measuring it shows where your emissions come from. Cutting the biggest sources does more than any purchase. Carbon credits come last, for what you can’t yet avoid.
Reduce first, then offset
- Footprint: 10.0 t
- After cuts: 6.0 t
- Offset: 6.0 t
Example only, not a measured household. Credits cover what’s left after reductions — not the whole footprint.
How big is a typical footprint?
It depends a great deal on where and how you live. A review of 53 studies found that household consumption is linked, directly and indirectly, to around two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions, about 6 tonnes of CO₂e per person on averageSource 1. The same review put the average per-person footprint at 13.4 tonnes in North America and 7.5 tonnes in Europe, against 1.7 tonnes in Africa and the Middle EastSource 1.
National averages of fossil CO₂ alone are lower. In 2024 the world average was about 4.7 tonnes per personSource 2. See average carbon footprint by country to find yours, and what is a carbon footprint? for what each measure includes.
Measure, then reduce
- Measure. The carbon footprint calculator estimates your yearly footprint from home energy, travel, food and shopping, and shows your biggest sources. How to calculate a carbon footprint explains the method.
- Reduce. Our guide to reducing your carbon footprint ranks the personal changes with the largest measured savings, such as living car-free, flying less and changing what you eatSource 1.
- Businesses. Companies report their emissions in three scopes. Scope 1, 2 and 3 explained covers what goes where, and our business section turns that into a reduction plan.
The potential is large. The IPCC found that demand-side measures, from how we travel and heat buildings to what we eat, could cut global emissions from end-use sectors by 40–70% by 2050 compared with baseline scenariosSource 3.
Where carbon credits fit
Credits are for the emissions left after you have cut what you can. The SBTi’s net-zero standard follows the same order for companies: deep cuts first, then removals to neutralise what remains, and credits never counted as reductionsSource 5. Reduce vs offset explains why the order matters, and residual emissions covers what is left.