CO2equivalent
CO2equivalent, commonly abbreviated as CO2e, is a metric used to express the total climate impact of different greenhouse gases (GHGs) as the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that would cause the same level of warming over a specified time horizon. It enables comparison and aggregation of diverse emissions into a single, comparable unit for reporting and analysis.
Calculation relies on the global warming potential (GWP) of each gas, which is a factor that measures
Time horizon choice matters because the warming impact of gases changes with different horizons. The 100-year
Applications include national greenhouse gas inventories, corporate carbon footprints, product life cycle assessments, and policy analysis.