Understanding Key
Terms:
Understand some basic concepts before diving into the
nuance of GHG accounting and other intricacies of carbon
markets and net zero economies.
GHG Protocol
The de facto global accounting method for measuring an entity's direct,
downstream, and upstream GHG emissions. This protocol defines methodologies
for calculating and defining the scope of emissions, as well as informing the
standard setting criteria of many other reporting frameworks such as CDP, GRI,
TCFD, SASB, and SBTi.
Greenhouse Gasses (GHG) and Carbon:
Global Warming Potentials:
CO2e:
Greenhouse gases are gases contributing to the greenhouse effect (atmosphere
warming) by absorbing infrared radiation. Carbon is the most common
greenhouse gas emitted by human activities and is therefore used in shorthand
to refer to a number of other greenhouse gases.
Carbon (CO2) is typically used as the equivalent metric for quantifying other
gasses, known as CO2 equivalents or CO2e. A quantity of GHG can be expressed
as CO2e by multiplying the amount of GHG by its Global Warming Potential.
The Global Warming Potential (GWP) was developed to allow comparisons of the
global warming impacts of different gasses. Specifically, it is a measure of how
much energy the emissions of 1 ton of a gas will absorb over a given period of
time, relative to the emissions of 1 ton of carbon dioxide (CO2).
Sustainability & Energy Management Simplified
