Shipping carbon footprint calculator
CO₂ for one shipment by air, road, rail or sea. Weight times distance times a published factor, with every step shown.
g CO₂ per tonne-km
- Air freight602
- Road (truck)62
- Inland barge31
- Rail22
- Short-sea shipping16
- Deep-sea container ship8
Straight-line (great-circle) distance between the centre points of the two countries. Real shipping routes are longer, and a country's centre can be far from your city, so type in the real distance if you know it.
43.9 kg
CO₂ by air freight for 10 kg over 7,298 km.
Compare by transport mode
CO₂, air freight
43.93 kg
4,393.4 g of CO₂ per kg shipped
How we worked this out
CO₂ (kg) = tonnes × kilometres × g CO₂ per tonne-km ÷ 1000
- 01Shipment weight in tonnes10 kg ÷ 10000.01 t
- 02Distance, straight-line estimategreat circle, Nepal → United Kingdom7,298 km
- 03Tonne-kilometres0.01 t × 7,298 km72.98 t·km
- 04Emission factor, air freightgrams of CO₂ per tonne-km602 g
- 05Emissions72.98 × 602 g ÷ 100043.93 kg CO₂
Data source
- ECTA / Cefic, Guidelines for Measuring and Managing CO2 Emission from Freight Transport Operations (2011), average factors after McKinnon · checked 31 Oct 2026Industry averages in grams of CO2 per tonne-kilometre. Real emissions depend on aircraft, vehicle, load factor and route. For audited reporting use the GLEC Framework.
- Great-circle distance between country centre pointsStraight-line (great-circle) distance between the centre points of the two countries. Real shipping routes are longer, and a country's centre can be far from your city, so type in the real distance if you know it.
Straight-line (great-circle) distance between the centre points of the two countries. Real shipping routes are longer, and a country's centre can be far from your city, so type in the real distance if you know it.
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About these numbers
How is the carbon footprint of a shipment calculated?
Multiply the weight in tonnes by the distance in kilometres to get tonne-kilometres, then multiply by an emission factor for the transport mode, in grams of CO2 per tonne-km.
How much worse is air freight than sea freight?
Using the average factors here, air freight emits about 75 times more CO2 per tonne-km than a deep-sea container ship (602 g against 8 g).
Where do the emission factors come from?
ECTA / Cefic, Guidelines for Measuring and Managing CO2 Emission from Freight Transport Operations (2011), average factors after McKinnon. Industry averages in grams of CO2 per tonne-kilometre. Real emissions depend on aircraft, vehicle, load factor and route. For audited reporting use the GLEC Framework.