Sending just one less unnecessary email per day could reduce the UK’s carbon footprint by 16,000 tonnes per year, according to research.

The study, conducted in part by Professor Mike Berners-Lee, claims that the UK sends over 64 million unnecessary emails every day which sheds new light on how our everyday lives can impact the climate.

The research released today found that UK adults send around 11 unnecessary emails each day, with simple one or two word replies such as ‘thanks’ or ‘you too’ driving part of the UK’s carbon output.

The energy required from email servers, networks and systems such as the cloud in one year are claimed to create carbon footprint which is the same as 81,152 flights to Madrid.

Professor Mike Berners-Lee, at Lancaster University who conducted the research told the Telegraph:

"It is a broad estimate based on some research I did for my previous book based on the best available data for the carbon footprint of email.

"Whenever there's junk in our lives, there's an opportunity to make life better and save a bit of carbon while we're at it.

"The carbon happens when you're at your machine when you're tapping your email out, and then you send it and the network uses some electricity to send it and then will end up being stored in the cloud, which again will take up electricity.