Whether out of poverty or virtue, many of us spend much of the year reining in our appetites to save our pennies and our health. But at Christmas many of us put our worries aside and go wild in an orgy of lavish gifting, extensive travel and a gluttonous feeding frenzy.
This carnival of consumption has a cost: not just to our wallets and our waistlines, but also to the climate.
An analysis for the Guardian has found the average Briton’s consumption on Christmas Day causes 23 times more greenhouse gas emissions than a regular day.
Emissions generated by each adult by all the travel, gifts, energy, decorations, food, drink and waste associated with the climax of the annual carnival of consumerism amount to 513kg of CO2 equivalent (CO2e), the analysis found. The average daily emissions of a UK adult are about 22kg CO2e.
The research lays bare the climate impact of the annual celebrations, enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people in the wealthiest parts of the world but which have long been criticised as having been hijacked by marketing promoting mass consumption.
In the power-intensive modern economy, almost every activity comes at a carbon cost and associated damage to the climate. And with the speed and scale of consumption rocketing over the Christmas period, that cost is multiplied.
Melanie Nazareth from Christian Climate Action said: “We have been deliberately sold a vision of Christmas that is based on material consumption. We are constantly bombarded by advertising and media that tells us that if we aren’t spending money on things, we are not doing Christmas properly. This is destroying the whole meaning of Christmas as well as destroying the planet.
“Christmas is a celebration of love and if we love people, if we care about the baby born today, the greatest gift we can give them is a livable planet.
“This is not just about our individual gift-giving, although we all have a responsibility to take action where we can. Retailers and manufacturers have the power to create change and they need to think beyond making bigger profits to think about their impact on the planet.”
Gifts were the biggest contributor to the total, accounting for more than 93% of emissions, according to ClimatePartner, which carried out the analysis on behalf of the Guardian, using market research provided by Finder.
It found the average adult buying 20 gifts for family and friends would contribute a mammoth 479kg CO2e. The worst kinds of gifts, in carbon emissions terms, were electronics, which the research found amounted to almost half each average individual’s gift-giving related emissions.
Asad Rehman, the director of War on Want, which campaigns on the climate and poverty, said: “Rich corporations and their billionaire owners have once again gone big on Christmas advertising to push ordinary people into spending more than they or the planet can afford – transforming Christmas into a season of environmental excess.
“Corporate giants’ relentless drive for profit over planet or people is pushing millions of ordinary people struggling to feed their families and heat their homes into deeper debt and overconsumption of the planet’s resources.
“Yet the main culprits of excessive consumption are the top 1% – who have not only grabbed most of the world’s wealth, but whose carbon footprint is more than the poorest 50% of the world’s population. That is hurtling us towards climate catastrophe, whilst trashing the limited resources of our planet that are critical to protect our societies.”
In comparison with the impact of gift giving, most other categories of Christmas consumption seem marginal. The second most carbon-intensive Christmas activity was travel, accounting for almost 14kg CO2e per UK adult – about 2.7% of their Christmas Day total.
Finder’s research found that nearly three-quarters of respondents planned some travel for Christmas, with 46% planning to travel by car or camper van, for a mean distance of 45 miles, contributing about half of total emissions. Fewer than 5% planned to travel by plane, but their journeys, for a mean distance of 207 miles, contributed almost a quarter of the total.
Decorations, including the Christmas tree, came in third, leading to about 12.5kg CO2e, making up 2.4% of an individual’s average emissions on Christmas Day.
There were big differences in the impact of artificial versus real trees, with artificial trees contributing almost three times as much carbon emissions. A standard suite of decorations was judged to contribute about 6.62kg CO2e.
The Christmas feast, for most the keystone of the day’s celebrations, emits 5.2kg CO2e a person, according to the research, which looked at the impact of a typical dinner with dishes selected from the BBC Good Food Guide’s “classic Christmas menu”. Interestingly, the highest carbon impact came not from the food but from the beer and wine that tend to wash it down.
“Whilst this is a time of celebration, gifting and abundance, this analysis gives us a better understanding of the impact Christmas has on our carbon footprint, which can be significant,” said Richard Hill, the managing director of ClimatePartner UK.
“The good news is there are now so many ways we can be more carbon-conscious such as buying preloved gifts, or buying a little less food to minimise waste. There is no reason we can’t be kind and generous to the planet as well as our loved ones this holiday season.”
