Thai Adventures

Wednesday, 30 September 2009

Reducing my Carbon Footprint by living in Thailand

Introduction : According to the Guardian, each person in the UK is, on average, responsible for about 14 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year. However, about two-thirds of that 14-tonne annual total comes from the way we run our homes, our personal transport and the things we buy.
Based on this I have tried to calculate my carbon footprint now I live in Thailand.
In detail
• Gas (on average responsible for two tonnes of CO2 per person in UK), in Thailand I don’t have to heat my home and do not use gas, saving 2 tonnes.
• Electricity (on average responsible for one tonne of CO2 per person in UK), I don’t use air conditioning but do use a fan, I estimate no change in usage but NOTE THAT electricity cost here is half that in UK, (Thailand’s electricity is 70% from natural gas)
• Car (on average responsible for 1.5 tonnes of CO2), no car, saving 1.5 tonnes.
• Flying (on average responsible for 1.2 tonnes of CO2), in my case this has increased, if I fly home each year I will produce 2.2 tonnes (over one tonne each way BKK to MAN), increase of 1 tonne
• Consumer electronics (on average responsible for 0.5 tonnes of CO2), not really using any new ones,
• Food (on average responsible for 1.5 tonnes of CO2), in my case I have changed to a mainly vegetarian diet based on rice with some pork and chicken, saving 0.5 tonnes
• Water, sewage and waste disposal on average responsible for (0.3 tonnes of CO2 ), no change
• Paper (on average responsible for 0.3 tonnes of CO2 ) no change as I read a newspaper every day
• Public transport (on average responsible for 0.2 tonnes of CO2 ), I use public transport a lot, but I also cycle a lot which my shrinks my carbon footprint by a little bit.
In summary I have reduced my carbon footprint by just over 3 tonnes per year or 22 percent
Tony