I often hear opinions that Estonia, as a small country, cannot do anything to slow down climate change. Besides, there are so few Estonians that even if the entire country reduced its greenhouse gas emissions to zero, its global impact would still be negligible. Is it really so?
Statistics say that China and the USA are jointly responsible for 45 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, followed by the European Union, India, Russia and Japan. So the Estonian indicator does not even make up a percent of the world’s green house gases
If you look at the indicators in more detail, in 2021 the Estonian CO2 emissions averaged 6.2 tons, while the world average was only 4.5 tons per person. Here, it is important to emphasize that Estonia’s performance after regaining independence has been impressive, because overall, Estonia’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen from more than 36 MtCO2eq (36 tons of CO2 equivalent) in 1990 to just 9 MtCO2eq in 2022.
That’s a huge achievement! And as everyone knows and sees, the standard of living in Estonia has risen enormously at the same time. New technologies have brought a new solutions that have helped to reduce both CO2 emissions and improve living standards.
The carbon footprint is not the only important indicator
Instead of just measuring greenhouse gases, nowadays we talk more and more often about carbon footprints, which includes the total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) created during human activity. For example, a product’s carbon footprint includes emissions throughout its life cycle, even if they did not occur in the same country where the product was consumed. This is because the whole period from production to consumption and final disposal or recycling is taken into account.
Estonian Foresight centre has calculated that the average carbon footprint of an Estonian is actually at the same level as the carbon footbprint of an average European. Furthermore, Estonian average person’s footprint on climate change acceleration 7.6 times higher than it would be sustainable. Most of the carbon footprint is created by food, mobility (transport etc.), electricity and heating.
Greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the previous three can be reduced by investing in energy saving, consumption reduction and the use of sustainable technologies.
Challenge seems very hard. And you can ask, can we really reduce our carbon footprint so that it reaches a sustainable level?
It is time to talk about carbon handprint
It is much more interesting to talk about carbon handprint, that is the opposite of carbon footprint. Carbon handprint means all such measures that have a positive effect on the climate. If taken seriously enough, they can even reduce your carbon footprint. I’ll give one example: if a company produces a carbon handprint for consumers (that is, makes products that help to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases), the consumer can also reduce their own carbon footprint by using this efficient new technology or products made with it.
Therefore, Estonia can have a much bigger impact on the world’s carbon footprint than simply reducing its own carbon footprint. With its high education and technological know-how, Estonia can create technological solutions and activities that help people and companies around the world reduce their carbon footprint. Tallinn University of Technology plays an important role in the development of technologies, as well as in the research and development of the operations, which would help to reduce emissions worldwide.
I believe that Estonia can become a country with world-class carbon handprint. This requires continuous commitment to the creation of green technologies, piloting solutions in Estonian companies that allow emissions reduction and then selling them to other countries.
Sources:
This opinion was published on June 16, 2024 in the magazine Postimees
Tales of Talsinki 