Carbon footprint

Carbon footprint refers to the total amount of greenhouse gases resulting from the activities of an individual or an organization. Greenhouse gases are gases that are released into the atmosphere and cause the planet to overheat. If you want to calculate your own carbon footprint, you need to know the amount of greenhouse gases for which you are responsible, such as carbon dioxide. This is a difficult measurement to calculate precisely and there are different definitions on this subject. But in general, there are direct impacts of energy use and indirect impacts of the energy used to produce the products we use or consume.

In the modern world, gases released especially due to transportation constitute a large part of the carbon footprint. Reducing the use of gasoline or diesel cars and flying less and consuming locally produced food are the most effective ways to reduce your carbon footprint. Where you live also affects your personal footprint. It's important to make sure our home is heated or cooled efficiently and well insulated. Using sustainable energy such as solar or wind at the highest level reduces your emissions. However, stoves, which are used more frequently in underdeveloped and developing countries, have negative consequences for the greenhouse effect due to the greenhouse gases they release during use.

The raw materials of the items we use in daily life are also an important factor in calculating the carbon footprint. Producing and disposing of all these plastic, metallic, cardboard products requires a lot of energy and raw materials. Therefore, recycling can help reduce your carbon footprint; but keep in mind that this is not as effective as traveling or heating and cooling the home.

You also have your eating habits. The efficiency of livestock farming activities required for sufficient meat consumption is also a matter of debate. Efforts are being made to make the amount of water spent in this area more efficient in terms of the amount of food to be obtained by using it in irrigation systems.

On the whole, people in poorer countries produce less greenhouse gases. So if people in rich countries really want to reduce their carbon footprint, they need to make major changes in their lifestyles. Although it is hard to believe, this can be done and green technologies are being developed every day for this purpose. In addition, fortunately, many countries are announcing policies to reduce their carbon footprint by the middle of this century. However, for these policies to be successful , individual revolutionary changes must be made in our lifestyle.

Now some country data:

In the United States, per capita carbon dioxide emissions are around 16.1 tons per year. While this amount is 7.1 tons in China, it is 5.5 tons in the United Kingdom, and the amount in our country is around 6.7 tons per person according to 2021 TÜİK data. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, this figure is only 0.03 tonnes. In countries such as Qatar, which have a very small population but a lot of oil and gas production, the amount of emissions per capita is around 38.6 tons.

The above data only includes production and other factors in consumption processes are not included in these calculations. But generally, people with more income tend to consume more. So if people in rich countries really want to reduce their carbon footprint, they need to make major changes in their lifestyles.

So, what is being done to reduce the carbon footprint in the world and in our country?

The European Green Deal (AYM), which is the road map for the green transformation process required by the Paris Climate Agreement, was announced by the European Union on 11 December 2019. The announced Constitutional Court is the new growth strategy of the EU, which aims to make the European continent the world's first climate-neutral continent, where greenhouse gas emissions are net zero by 2050.

In order to achieve the EU's target of "minimum 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030", a revision package called Fit-for-55 was announced in 2021. The package includes various regulations such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, emission performance standards for light vehicles, greenhouse gas emissions from land use, alternative energy infrastructures, and emission reduction.

The European Climate Law was adopted in 2021 to ensure the legal binding of the target of becoming a carbon neutral continent in 2050, which is the focus of the Constitutional Court. Within the scope of the law, the EU's "55% reduction plan compared to 1990" in greenhouse gas emissions for 2030 has become binding on member states.

Let's come to the steps taken by Turkey:

In November 2022, Turkey's targets to combat climate change were updated and a new National Contribution Declaration was announced. The National Contribution Declaration, developed with a sectoral approach for the energy, industry, building, transportation, waste, agriculture, land use, and forestry sectors to evaluate the emission reduction potential, includes the reduction policies to be implemented until 2030.

According to the 12th Development Plan published in the Official Gazette No. 32356 dated November 1, 2023, Turkey has set the target of becoming a zero net emission country as 2053.

The visions determined by Turkey in line with this goal are summarized as follows;

• A+ high energy-saving products should be preferred for the white goods we use in our home.
• In transportation, public transportation should be preferred, and in private vehicles, electric vehicles should be preferred instead of gasoline and diesel vehicles. There should be fewer flights.
• In order to increase the efficiency of home heating, houses should be insulated.
• In the food we consume, products from local producers should be preferred, minimizing the time it takes for the product to arrive on the shelves.
• Natural energy sources such as solar energy should be used.
• The resulting waste should be recycled.
• Alternative uses should be developed with the re-use principle, such as using our old t-shirts as cloth.