Carbon Footprint

Abstract

Climate change represents the biggest sustainability challenge of our time. As such, international governments, local authorities and private companies are called for suitable tools to monitor their impact on climate change which is estimated by the amount of greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere. Carbon footprint is an easy-to-apply tool for monitoring and quantifying greenhouse gas emissions, as well as checking mitigation/reduction programs at different scale. In particular, it is able to capture the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions directly and indirectly caused by a country, an activity or accumulated over the life stages of a product. In the article, the application of carbon footprint at different level of analysis is presented and discussed on the basis of the latest scientific advancements. The utilization of carbon footprint at micro-scale has by now consolidated an international reputation and the recent standardization of carbon footprint at the city and product level is an important evidence of it. However, its application at macro scale has still not been sufficiently approved from the international community. In this context, this article highlights as the adoption of carbon footprint at the country level might have deep consequences on the global trading system, addressing issues such as carbon leakage and emissions embodied in international trade. Although further advancements in the development of carbon footprint analysis are still needed, presently it already represents a crucial tool for developing environmental plans, thus acting as bridge between the scientific community and decision makers.