Diet Carbon Footprint Calculator
This calculator uses the dietary greenhouse gas figures from Scarborough et al. (2014), a study of 55,504 people in the UK that grouped participants by measured meat intake and modelled emissions per 2,000 kcal of food eaten. Pick the group that best matches how you eat to see an annual estimate, and compare it with every other group.
Short answer: A high-meat diet is associated with roughly 2.6 tonnes of CO2-equivalent per year from food, against about 1.1 tonnes for a vegan diet — a difference of around 60%.
2.05t CO₂e
Your food, per year
1.05t CO₂e
Same household, vegan
1.00t saved
Annual difference
- High meat (100 g+ per day)2,624
- Medium meat (50–99 g per day)2,055
- Low meat (under 50 g per day)1,705
- Fish, no meat1,427
- Vegetarian1,391
- Vegan1,055
kg CO₂e per year · Scarborough et al. 2014
How this is calculated
- Daily emissions per group are taken from Scarborough et al. (2014), standardised to 2,000 kcal per day.
- Annual totals are the daily figure multiplied by 365.
- Figures cover production emissions; cooking, retail and personal transport to shops are not included.
- Individual results vary with local production systems, food waste and exact food choices.
Frequently asked
- How much CO2 does a vegan diet save per year?
- Compared with a high-meat diet (100 g or more of meat a day), a vegan diet is associated with about 1.5 tonnes less CO2-equivalent per year, based on Scarborough et al. (2014).
- Is a vegetarian diet nearly as good as a vegan one?
- It is close but not equal. A vegetarian diet comes in around 3.81 kg CO2e per day against 2.89 kg for a vegan diet, because dairy and eggs still carry livestock emissions.
- Does eating local matter more than eating plants?
- For most foods, no. Transport is a small share of food emissions for the majority of products, while what you eat typically dominates the total.