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  • Glossary item | Last updated: 19 Mar 2024

Carbon dioxide equivalent

Bioeconomy

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). CO 2-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.

IPCC, 2022, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) 'Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change'.

Source category: International Organisation