Equivalent carbon dioxide emission (Q563)

Subject, term, tag: Equivalent carbon dioxide emission

Equivalent carbon dioxide emission (CO2)

Language	Label	Description	Also known as
English	Equivalent carbon dioxide emission	Subject, term, tag: Equivalent carbon dioxide emission	Equivalent carbon dioxide emission (CO2)

Statements

Instance of

Category

source version

IPCC Glossary v1.5

1 reference

Source

https://apps.ipcc.ch/glossary/

date accessed

27 May 2026

Part of

Working Group I: Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis

0 references

Definition

The amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission that would have an equivalent effect on a specified key measure of climate change, over a specified time horizon, as an emitted amount of another greenhouse gas (GHG) or a mixture of other GHGs. For a mix of GHGs it is obtained by summing the CO2-equivalent emissions of each gas. There are various ways and time horizons to compute such equivalent emissions (see greenhouse gas emission metric). CO2-equivalent emissions are commonly used to compare emissions of different GHGs, but should not be taken to imply that these emissions have an equivalent effect across all key measures of climate change. [Note: Under the Paris Rulebook (Decision 18/CMA.1, annex, paragraph 37), parties have agreed to use GWP-100 values from the IPCC AR5 or GWP-100 values from a subsequent IPCC Assessment Report to report aggregate emissions and removals of GHGs. In addition, parties may use other metrics to report supplemental information on aggregate emissions and removals of GHGs.] (English)