Emission Factors

What is an Emission Factor?

A value that represents the amount of CO2e released into the environment per unit of activity (such as km driven, litres of fuel burned, number of items). It is used to estimate emissions from various sources of air pollution.

Examples of Emissions Factors include:

Paddy rice: 0.4867 kgCO2e/EUR
Oil tanker: 61 gCO2e/tkm
Petrol: 0.062 kgCO2e/kWh

To get the total emissions of something, we multiply the Emis- sions Factor by the activity or spend.

Paddy Rice Example

The complete Emission Factor for paddy rice has the following structure:

Value: 0.4867 kgCO2e/EUR
Source: EXIOBASE
Region: Portugal
Year: 2021

This EF uses a currency unit (EUR), which means that in order to use it to calculate emissions, the monetary value of the paddy rice produced must be known.

The source of this EF is EXIOBASE, a consortium of scientific organisations and universities who are experts in this type of data.

The region of this EF is Portugal, which means that it has been calculated from Portuguese data.

The year of this EF is 2021, which means that it has been calculated using data from 2021, and published on that year.

Oil Tanker Example

The complete Emission Factor for an oil tanker has the foll owing structure:

Value: 61 gCO2e/tkmt
Source: GLEC
Region: Global
Year: 2019
Size: Medium, 5-60 dwkt
Fuel: Heavy Fuel Oil

This EF uses a mass-distance unit (tkm). Tkm (tonne-kilometre) means that this EF refers to 1 tonne transported over 1km. In order to use this EF to calculate emissions, the load and distance of the transported goods must be known.

The source of this EF is GLEC, the leading international standard for logistics emissions calculations, created by the Smart Freight Centre.

The region of this EF is Global, as sea shipping is generally global.

The year of this EF is 2019, as the GLEC Framework version 2.0 was released in 2019.

This EF refers to a medium-sized oil tanker, as opposed to small or large ones, which would have different Emission Factors.

This EF refers to an oil tanker running on Heavy Fuel Oil, as opposed to those running on Marine Gas Oil, which would have a different Emission Factor.

Petrol Example

The complete Emission Factor for a Petrol has the following structure:

Value: 0.0655 kg CO2e/kWh
Source: BEIS
Region: Global
Year: 2022
Caloric Value: net
Blend: 100% mineral petrol

The source of this EF is GLEC, the leading international standard for logistics emissions calculations, created by the Smart Freight Centre.

The region of this EF is Global, as sea shipping is generally global.

The year of this EF is 2019, as the GLEC Framework version 2.0 was released in 2019.

This EF refers to a medium-sized oil tanker, as opposed to small or large ones, which would have different Emission Factors.

This EF refers to an oil tanker running on Heavy Fuel Oil, as opposed to those running on Marine Gas Oil, which would have a different Emission Factor.