Difference between revisions of "GHG Emission Factor"

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* Land use categories may also have removal factors i.e., the amount of CO<sub>2</sub> removed from the atmosphere per unit of activity data (often expressed in hectares).
 
* Land use categories may also have removal factors i.e., the amount of CO<sub>2</sub> removed from the atmosphere per unit of activity data (often expressed in hectares).
  
 +
== See Also ==
 +
* [[Emission Factor Database]] (EFDB)
  
 
== References ==
 
== References ==

Revision as of 11:37, 5 January 2022

Definition

A GHG Emission Factor is a factor (multiplier) that converts activity data into GHG emissions data[1]. Emission factors are positive for produced emissions and negative for sequestered emissions.

Requirements

Emission factors should be

  • relevant to the inventory boundary
  • specific to the activity being measured, and
  • sourced from credible government, industry, or academic sources.

Categories

Various types of emission factors can be used for calculating emissions associated with a material or product. Emission factors may be activity-based, or life-cycle based.

  • Activity-based emission factors include emissions at the point of the final activity (e.g. combustion of fuel). Activity-based emission factors must be used in order to comply with the GPC Protocol (in particular, its differentiation between scopes).
  • Life cycle emission factors, which include emissions that occur at every stage of a material/product’s life, from raw material acquisition or generation of natural resource to end of life. Life-cycle emission factors consider emissions at every stage of a material/ fuel’s life (e.g. extraction, processing, transport, combustion).
  • Cradle-to-gate (sometimes referred to as “upstream”) emission factors, which include all emissions that occur in the life cycle of a material/product up to the point of sale by the producer.


  • A physical emission factor is the emission factor associated with a Physical Activity. The unit depends on the type of activity.
  • An economic emission factor is the emission factor associated with an economic activity. These economic emission factors can be structured in different ways based on the underlying datasets that are used. Most often, there are different economic emission factors available for different countries/regions and sectors.


Examples

  • kg CO2 emitted per liter of fuel consumed, or
  • kg CO2 emitted per kilograms of material produced
  • tCO2eq/tonne crude oil
  • -200 tCO2eq/hectare forest and
  • 100 gCO2eq/kilometer driven.

Notes

  • Land use categories may also have removal factors i.e., the amount of CO2 removed from the atmosphere per unit of activity data (often expressed in hectares).

See Also

References

  1. WRI, Greenhouse Gas Protocol