Carbon Footprints, Calculators and Labels

I've been waiting for DEFRA to launch their new carbon calculator, but it hasn't emerged yet - I should be able to write about it Friday. The big question is why do it when there are plenty of others around - check this one. The word is that the DEFRA model only covers half the carbon footprint of the average Brit anyway.

In the meantime I came across the Carbon Trust's new carbon-label this week. It is appearing on two products: Walker's Crisps (75g a pack) and Boots Shampoo (148g a bottle). While I can't imagine a punter standing in the aisle of Tesco's trying to decided between two packets of crisps on the basis of their footprint, it should put pressure on the manufacturers to reduce their footprint and make it easy for league tables of products to be drawn up.

While on this Carbon tip, the Guardian has declared that China has overtaken the US as the world's biggest polluter. Not per person it hasn't - the footprint per person is still a quarter of that in the US.