Where the lever really is
Instead of just being told: here you can do the math on how much a lever moves. Push up the share of a clean option and watch emissions fall. Electricity, heat and transport run through the same mechanic.
This is a back-of-the-envelope estimate, not a simulation: share × emission factor. No power-plant dispatch, no storage, grid or import modelling, and explicitly not a climate projection (the scenarios out to 2100 are a different thing).
Orders of magnitude: person ↔ facility
Individual behaviour and a power plant are not the same order of magnitude, on a normal scale a person next to a facility would be invisible. Hence logarithmic: each step of the axis is a factor of 10.
Logarithmic scale (1 t to 1000 Mt), some six orders of magnitude lie between a person and a facility, roughly a factor of a million.
They are different attributions of the same emissions, not separate amounts. A person's consumption footprint already contains their share of the plant and the sector. A power plant emits because people use the electricity. Side by side the bars show orders of magnitude, summing them would count the same tonne several times.
The mix, not behaviour
Emissions per kilowatt-hour are decided on the generation side, not at the light switch, which is why the electricity lever above is the single biggest one. Demand still matters (less use means less capacity to replace cleanly), but where the electricity comes from weighs more than individual saving.
Where the “personal carbon footprint” comes from
The term was popularised in 2004 by a PR campaign for the oil company BP (agency Ogilvy & Mather), complete with a “footprint calculator”. The aim was to shift responsibility for climate change onto individuals. That doesn't devalue individual action, but it frames it: the big lever is in the system, not in guilt.
Carbon Majors: as a study, not a data layer
Studies trace much of industrial greenhouse gases since 1988 to about 100 producers (Carbon Majors), including the combustion of the fossil products they sold. We cite this figure only as a referenced study, not as our own data layer (non-commercial licence), and with the note that it combines production and end-use combustion.
Sources: per-capita & national from Our World in Data / Global Carbon Budget (CC BY). Facilities from Climate TRACE (CC BY 4.0). Sector & Germany total from the German Environment Agency 2023. Carbon Majors cited only.
The lever catalogue
Which lever moves how much, how fast, and at what level? Leverage, not blame: the biggest levers are systemic and collective, as a citizen, not just a consumer. And where a slider would be physically wrong, it says so here rather than faking precision.
Click a computable lever to open its slider.
Mitigation: fighting the cause
Cuts emissions: the energy and emission levers plus the resource/circular levers against waste.
Clean electricity
computableThe single biggest lever: clean power cuts not only electricity but, via heat pumps and EVs, heat and transport emissions too.
Caveat: The last percent hinge on storage and grids, no longer on the share alone.
▸ slider open
The lever sits on the generation side, not at the light switch: emissions per kilowatt-hour are decided by the power fleet. Demand still matters, every saved kilowatt-hour is one that need not be replaced cleanly, but the big lever is the mix.
Heating & buildings
computableAway from oil and gas towards heat pumps, pellets and heat networks, backed by retrofits.
Caveat: Slow to act: the building stock turns over only across decades, heating systems last 20+ years.
→ to the slider
Drivetrain switch (cars)
computableElectric instead of combustion, but only with clean electricity (coupling). On a coal-heavy grid it shifts emissions rather than cutting them.
Caveat: Fleet turnover is slow; the lever only works fully alongside the electricity lever.
→ to the slider
Drive less & differently (modal shift)
computableAvoid, shorten or shift trips to bike and rail. Fast-acting and available right now.
Caveat: Heavily dependent on infrastructure and spatial planning; acts immediately but isn't possible everywhere.
→ to the slider
Efficiency & sufficiency
no sliderEvery avoided kilowatt-hour needn't be replaced cleanly, efficiency multiplies with clean supply.
Caveat: Rebound effects can eat into savings; not a simple share slider.
Industrial process emissions (cement, steel)
no sliderTogether Germany's largest source of process emissions: steel ~51 Mt CO₂e/year (~7 %, a good third of industry), cement ~16–20 Mt (~2 %), about 80 % of all process emissions. Much arises chemically (cement: ~2/3 from calcining limestone; steel: blast furnace), not from energy.
Caveat: No share slider works here, the emission sits in the process itself. The levers are lowering the clinker factor, scrap-based electric steel, H₂ direct reduction, timber instead of cement, and circularity. Source: UBA (dl-de/by-2.0).
Methane & nitrous oxide (agriculture)
no sliderMethane from cattle and nitrous oxide from fertiliser are biological process emissions, livestock alone ~35.5 Mt CO₂e/year, a good two-thirds of agriculture's and ~5 % of Germany's emissions. Methane has a strong short-term warming effect.
Caveat: No clean-share slider, the levers are herd size, feed and fertiliser management. Source: UBA (dl-de/by-2.0).
Diet
with caveatsThe demand side of agriculture, what ends up on the plate. In Germany ~1.7 t CO₂e per person per year (about 20 % of the personal footprint), globally roughly a quarter of all emissions. Animal products dominate (beef ~99 kg CO₂e/kg).
Caveat: An individual and collective lever with real effect: vegetarian saves ~20–47 %, vegan ~38–52 % of diet-related emissions (omnivore 1.75 → vegan 0.81 t/person·yr). Sources: UBA (dl-de/by-2.0), OWID / Poore & Nemecek 2018 (CC BY).
→ to the slider
F-gases (refrigeration & AC)
no sliderFluorinated gases, mainly HFCs as refrigerants, are extremely potent per tonne (up to ~23,500× stronger than CO₂) but occur in small volumes: ~10 Mt CO₂e/year, about 1–1.5 % of German emissions, and declining thanks to the EU F-gas regulation.
Caveat: No share slider, the levers are switching to natural refrigerants (ammonia, CO₂, propane), leak-tightness and recovery, backed by the regulatory phase-down (EU 517/2014, 2024/573). Source: UBA (dl-de/by-2.0); GWP values IPCC.
Peatland rewetting
with caveatsDrained peatlands emit CO₂ continuously, in Germany about 50 Mt CO₂e per year, roughly 8 % of emissions and over a third of agriculture's emissions on just ~7 % of the land. Rewetting is a very strong regional lever, especially in north-east Germany and Brandenburg.
Caveat: Not a share slider but land and water policy: rewetting saves about 20 t CO₂e per hectare per year on average. Sources: UBA (national peatland balance, dl-de/by-2.0), per-hectare factors IPCC Wetlands Supplement (National Inventory Report, Thünen).
→ to the slider
Carbon price
no sliderAn effective, rising carbon price steers all levers at once, the classic systemic lever.
Caveat: Effective as a citizen (vote, debate), not as a consumer. Not a share slider but a framework instrument. Instruments: national carbon price (BEHG) + EU emissions trading.
Standards & planning law
no sliderRegulation (efficiency, building, fleet standards) and faster planning and permitting decide the pace of the whole transformation.
Caveat: The largest but most sluggish lever, collective and political, not individual. Not a share slider but a framework instrument. Framework: Climate Protection Act + regulatory and planning law.
Use waste heat
no sliderIndustry, data centres, wastewater and refrigeration release large amounts of unused heat. Used instead of cooled away, it replaces fossil heating.
Caveat: Low-temperature, heat with it, don't generate power. Only usable with a consumer or heat network nearby. BfEE platform: around 205 TWh nationwide; the facility-level layer awaits a clear licence.
Avoided electricity use
no sliderStandby and idle losses, lighting, and grid and conversion losses: electricity that is never needed does not have to be generated cleanly either.
Caveat: Rebound: efficiency gains are partly eaten up by higher use. Magnitude qualitative without a vetted overall source.
Digital sufficiency
no sliderStreaming resolution, data volumes and model sizes drive the power demand of networks and data centres. Moderate use lowers it.
Caveat: Rebound is strong here: more efficient technology often leads to more use. Not a cleanly quantifiable single lever.
Repair & product lifetime
no sliderUsing devices longer and repairing rather than replacing saves the embodied energy of new production (‘right to repair’).
Caveat: The effect sits in manufacturing, not operation, hard to quantify. Qualitative without a vetted source.
Circularity: sharing, urban mining, materials
no sliderUsing instead of owning, keeping building materials in the loop (urban mining, recycled concrete, rubble) and cutting packaging lower material throughput.
Caveat: Sharing can cause rebound (more, cheaper use). Data patchy, shown here without figures.
Food waste
no sliderDiscarded food causes emissions along the whole chain, from field to disposal, with no benefit whatsoever.
Caveat: Official figures exist (UBA/Thünen) but differ by scope. Qualitative until our own source round.
Renovation over new build
no sliderRenovating and repurposing existing buildings instead of building new: a new build's embodied energy is often so high that renovation wins despite worse operating efficiency.
Caveat: Not a blanket rule, depends on condition. Embodied energy is hard to standardise; shown here without a figure.
Limit land take
no sliderLess new sealing preserves soils as water stores and cool-air areas, and protects natural carbon sinks.
Caveat: Works on both: adaptation (sealing) and mitigation (land use / sinks). Qualitative without a vetted overall figure.
Adaptation: cushioning the consequences
Cuts no emissions; it softens the consequences (heat, heavy rain, drought). Never counted as mitigation.
Why separate? → Mitigation vs. adaptationBuilding & urban greening
no sliderGreen roofs and façades, street trees and parks cool, retain rainwater and create habitat.
Caveat: Adaptation, not a carbon sink: the benefit is cooling, retention and biodiversity, not meaningful emission reduction.
De-sealing & sponge city
no sliderUnsealing soils and buffering rain instead of draining it (sponge city / retention) reduces flooding and heat.
Caveat: Adaptation, not mitigation. The benefit is water retention and cooling.
Shade, albedo & cool-air corridors
no sliderShading, bright surfaces (albedo) and preserved cool-air corridors lower heat stress in cities.
Caveat: Pure adaptation. Cuts no emissions. It softens the consequences of warming.
The lever sits on the generation side, not at the light switch: emissions per kilowatt-hour are decided by the power fleet. Demand still matters, every saved kilowatt-hour is one that need not be replaced cleanly, but the big lever is the mix.
All levers are now source-backed (ADR 0098). A slider exists only where a clean share can honestly be computed, the other levers are sourced but deliberately without a slider: the lever is explained, not slid.
The levers without vetted numbers (peatland, food, materials, F-gases) only get values after a dedicated source round, until then they stay editorial.