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Environment & Climate vocabulary · Emissions and Carbon

Emission factor

Meaning in environment & climate, with examples

/ɪˈmɪʃən ˈfæktər/nounAdvanced term

In environment & climate, emission factor means: A value that converts an activity, such as liters of fuel burned or kilowatt-hours of electricity used, into the amount of greenhouse gas or pollutant emitted.

In Turkish: emisyon faktörü, emisyon katsayısı

How it is used

Central to carbon accounting: emissions = activity data × emission factor. Factors come from the IPCC, national inventories, government databases or supplier-specific data; an example is a grid emission factor in kg CO2e per kWh. Analysts choose, apply and update emission factors.

Example sentences

  1. Which emission factor did you use for electricity from the national grid?

  2. Using the supplier's own emission factor lowered our Scope 3 estimate by 12%.

Common collocations

  • apply an emission factor
  • grid emission factor
  • default emission factor
  • activity data
  • emission factor database
  • greenhouse gas inventoryA structured account of all the greenhouse gases that a country, city or company emits and removes in a given year, broken down by source and by gas.
  • CO2eShort for carbon dioxide equivalent: a unit that expresses the warming effect of different greenhouse gases as the amount of CO2 that would cause the same warming.
  • Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissionsThe three categories used to report a company's greenhouse gases: Scope 1 from sources it owns, Scope 2 from the energy it buys, and Scope 3 from the rest of its value chain.
  • emissionsGases or particles released into the air, for example from vehicles, factories, power plants or farms. In climate work the word usually means greenhouse gases.

More terms: Emissions and Carbon

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