The Carbon Footprint & Its Reduction (AQA GCSE Chemistry)

Carbon footprint

• Carbon footprint refers to the total amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted over the full life cycle of a product, service or event

• Obtaining precise measurements of a carbon footprint is challenging, but the act of assessment raises awareness of climate change impacts and encourages individuals and policymakers to look for alternatives or ways of reducing carbon footprints

• One way or measuring a carbon footprint is by completing a life cycle assessment (LCA)

• A life cycle assessment technique used to assess the environmental impact associated with all the stages in the life cycle of a product, a service or an event

  • This could be something like a personal computer, a car, or a wedding

  • An LCA will consider activities such as the extraction of a raw material, how a product is manufactured and distributed and finally how it is disposed of at the end of its useful life

Reducing the carbon footprint

• The carbon footprint can be reduced by reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and methane 

• CO₂ emissions can be reduced by using renewable energy supplies such as solar or wind energy instead of burning fossil fuels

• Governments and global organisations are slowly switching to greener and sustainable sources of energy and often offer financial incentives to companies in an effort to convince them to “go green”

• Apart from using renewable energy sources other ways individuals can reduce their carbon footprint include:

  • Cutting out unnecessary journeys

  • Using public transport rather than private cars

  • Reducing consumption of meat

  • Buying locally sourced foods to reduce food miles (the distance food travels from production to consumption)

  • Carbon off-setting: paying for reforestation projects to compensate for carbon emissions from flying for example

  • Switching to electric vehicles

  • Recycling and re-using materials to prevent them being sent to landfill 

Recycling materials avoids them being sent to landfill 

_{Photo by Evan Demicoli on Unsplash}

• On an industrial scale, governments are increasingly investing in carbon capture schemes

  • Carbon capture refers to a range of technologies used to trap atmospheric carbon dioxide from power generation and other industries

  • The carbon dioxide is stored deep underground in porous rocks from which oil and gas have been extracted

  • The logic here is to restore the balance in the carbon cycle, by locking up carbon in the Earth's crust where it was previously stored as fossil fuels

Difficulties to Overcome

• There is still a lot of work to be done to significantly reduce the levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases 

• Some obstacles to overcome include: 

  • Alternative technologies are still in their infancy

  • Governments tend to be slow to act on these issues as they fear a negative impact on their economies

  • On an individual level, there is also resistance as it is difficult to convince people to change their ways

  • There is a lack of investment schemes for companies to help them to modernise their facilities

• Ultimately, many people believe that reducing the global carbon footprint will be too expensive and not enough to tackle climate change, so climate mitigation strategies should be adopted hand in hand with carbon footprint reduction

  • Changing the type of crops grown in different regions

  • Investing in flood defence systems or building houses on stilts

  • Changing building infrastructure to make it more resistant to extreme weather

  • Repurposing land vulnerable to flooding

  • Using heat sinks to make buildings more efficient