How much?
Swedens total green house emissions was around 85 million tonnes CO₂ equivalents (CO₂e) 2019. How much is that one might wonder. Is one ton of CO₂e much or what? Here are some comparisons to make it easier to understand:
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An average world citizen emitted a total of 6.5 tonnes CO₂ equivalents during 2019, a Swedish person 9.1 tonnes
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According to the Paris agreement 2015, the 1.5° goal could be achived if everyone on earth emits, a maximum of, 0.7 - 1.5 tonnes CO2 equivalents / person and year
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The 2018–2022 global mean temperature average (based on data up to May or June 2022) is estimated to be 1.17 ± 0.13 °C above the 1850–1900 average
8,65 tonnes / person
6.5 tonnes / person
We have only 0,33 °C left
So, in order to live a sustainable life, 1 ton CO₂e is about how much every person on earth should emit per year. In that case we could reach the 1.5 °C goal and avoid some chatastrofic events including wild fires, hurricanes, drought, flooding, etc.
This is of course a hard goal to reach for an individual. Since 1 ton CO₂e equals e.g. a return flight from Stockholm to Lisbon, or a single flight to Toronto for one person. Many things need to correlate to achieve this, e.g. a "polluters pay" policy making more sustainable transports cheaper and binding CO₂ from the atmosphear.
But a good start is to measure your footprints, because "without a scale you cannot lose weight".
How big are your footprints?
