CO2-converter background information

CO₂-converter is based on the emission factors mainly from the extensive OpenCO2.net emissions database.

The background to the calculation is described in more detail below.

Carbon dioxide absorbed by a tree

Various kinds of trees absorb different amounts of carbon dioxide when growing. This calculation has been developed for birch. Birch binds 0.904 t CO₂/m³. This value is based on birch’s basic density of 0,4975 t DM/t and the carbon content of a tree at 0,4961 (Luke, 2016).

Monetary value of carbon dioxide

EEX’s price for the emissions allowances in the EU’s Emissions Trading System has been used as the value of the emission tonne (70.72 eur/t CO₂, Jun 4, 2024)

CO2 emission of a car

The emission factor used is the average CO2 emissions of passenger cars used in Finland published by Traficom. NEDC method. (OpenCO2.net: 139.9 g CO₂/km)

The carbon footprint of a flight in Europe

Defra’s coefficient (with radiative forcing) has been used as the emission factor for the flights HEL-MUC and MUC-HEL. (OpenCO2.net: 185.92 g CO₂/km). The length of the round trip is 3144 km (ICAO).

CO2 emission of gasoline

The Statistics Finland’s Fuel classification coefficient has been used as the emission factor (OpenCO2.net: 2.02 kg CO₂/l)

CO2 emission of heating up a sauna

Heating a sauna for 2,5 hours with the electric heater of 8 kW consumes 20kWh of electricity. The emission factor of average Finnish electricity purchase (National residual mix of electricity reported by the Energy Authority) has been used (OpenCO2.net: 471.27 g CO₂/kWh)

Carbon footprint of one litre of milk

The Natural Resources Institute Finland’s emission factor for milk has been used as the emission factor (OpenCO2.net: 1.4 CO₂-ekv./kg)

Carbon footprint of a steak

The Natural Resources Institute Finland’s coefficient beef from the dairy cow has been used as the emission factor (OpenCO2.net: 14.6 kg CO₂-ekv./kg)

Annual CO2 emission of a Finn

The carbon footprint of the citizens’ private consumption in the year 2021, calculated by the Finnish Environment Institute, has been used as the emission factor, being 7.7 tonnes (SYKE, 2024).