Document Title: Carbon footprint, types, causes and solutions

Paper code: 13072

Carbon footprint, types, causes and solutions

a)

The carbon footprint refers to the level of greenhouse gases generated by a particular activity (Wiedmann and Minx, 2008). To simplify reporting, often the carbon footprint is stated as an amount of C0₂ generated by functions such as the manufacture and consumption of goods and services (Radonjič and Tompa, 2018). The carbon footprint is a measure of the exclusive total amount of carbon dioxide emissions that is directly and indirectly caused by an activity or is accumulated over the life stages of a product.

In other words, the concept “Carbon footprint” is a measure of the impact one’s activities have on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) produced through the burning of fossil fuels and is expressed as a weight of CO₂ emissions produced in tonnes (Trovato, et al., 2020). The carbon footprint encompasses the entire goods production chain, especially upstream linkages to coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear power, and renewables in addition to greenhouse gas emissions from use of the products themselves.