Why is my carbon footprint so much higher than the UK's

I have been playing around with Wren, a website that lets you calculate your carbon footprint based on answers to a bunch of simple questions, and then gives you the option of "neutralizing" your footprint for a personalized sum of money which will be invested in a variety of low-carbon environmental projects, from regenerative agro-forestry to clean cooking fuel to tree planting to renewable energy.

It's a pretty simple idea, nicely realized. It's hardly revolutionary, treading much the same ground as carbon offsets or ideas like Bullfrog Power (which I also subscribe to). But it might well appeal to millennials in particular, and it may give people a cozy feeling of actually doing something, however little, about the carbon crisis (although, in practice, it seems to me it will probably only attract concerned people who are already "doing something").

According to Wren, my annual carbon footprint, for example, comes out at 15.7 tons (including two long-haul return air trips a year, not that I've been able to do that recently), which I can apparently neutralize for the low, low price of $29.48 a month. It's a lower footprint than the Canadian and American average (although less so than I had expected), and of course much higher than the world average. It's an interesting exercise to pursue, if only to serve as a wake-up call for even the most dedicated environmentalist.

But what I found particularly interesting was the other benchmark comparison offered. My carbon footprint is apparently almost double that of the average UK citizen. The UK's carbon footprint is given as 8.9 tons, compared to 19.5 in the USA and 19.1 in Canada (for comparison, the world average is 4.9 tons). This is no developing country, though: Britain's lifestyle is very similat to that in North America. How, then, is their carbon footprint so much lower than ours?

Well, when I asked Wren that question, it seems to be all about the UK's cleaner energy mix (based on gas and renewables instead of coal), falling demand for energy, low manufacturing emissions (less industry, more services?) and low landfill emissions. According to CarbonBrief, Britain's CO2 emissions have declined by about 38% since 1990, faster than any other developed country. In fact, by some estimates, the UK is now halfway to meeting its target of "net-zero" emissions by 2050, streets ahead of Canada, for all its positive talk.

I had no idea Britain had done so well in its fight against global warming. It's chastening.