Abstract

Over the past few years, the term individual carbon footprint has gained enormous popularity. Carbon footprint calculations are in great demand since climate change is a major concern to individuals. Growing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases are upsetting the ecosystem and resulting in severe global warming and related effects. This study determines carbon footprint among individuals in Benin city Nigeria. The carbon emissions of the individuals, awareness of greenhouse gases and efforts taken by the individuals to reduce the emission rate were obtained through a questionnaire designed in Likert scale. 180 of these questionnaires were distributed to the respondents. The carbon footprint was calculated using ISO 14064 model. Other data were analyzed used descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation. The result showed that the range of the carbon footprint is between 0.1 and 57.2 tonnes of CO₂ per householdmost of which were within the ideal carbon footprint, as defined by ISO 14064 (2.72 and 7.26 tCO₂). The result also showed that there was low awareness of greenhouse gas and efforts taken by the respondents to reduce their carbon emission are low. The carbon footprint of the residents is generally low. More efforts should be done by relevant agencies to increase awareness of greenhouse gas and other climate change related to the study area

Key Words: Carbon, Footprint, Greenhouse gas, Individual, Awareness