Having the right orders of magnitude in mind to act on our carbon footprint is essential to inform our individual choices, but also where collective action is needed. We often hear about the average Swiss footprint, but it can be difficult to identify with it. Taking a character-based approach helps us to understand the many points of view on this issue.

The buttons below the graph give you access to commands with which you can adjust the parameters of our characters to simulate actions. The information button below the carbon footprint total gives you a short description of the character.

Governments’ climate commitments relate to direct national emissions. It is therefore difficult to transpose them to the concept of the individual carbon footprint, which is based on consumption (“What greenhouse gas emissions are needed in the world for my lifestyle? “).
It may be relevant to think in terms of the overall targets of the Paris Agreement (limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees). In this context, emissions need to be halved by the early 2030s. For Switzerland, that would represent a target of around 6.5 tonnes per inhabitant.

It’s up to you!

You can start with the character you feel closest to, and adjust the settings. To go further, we recommend these tools:

Climpact

Nos gestes climats (Ademe)

Good question! You can find all our sources and the details of our calculations in this document.

Our main sources are freely accessible data from :

Climpact

Nos gestes climats (Ademe)