Carblecast
31 Key Concepts in Carbon Accounting
Carble
October 27, 2023
Measure, model, and mitigate carbon emissions and deforestation with Carble.
In Episode #3 of the Carblecast, Sander Reuderink, CEO at Carble, covers 31 essential concepts in carbon accounting within 5 minutes. From tCO2e to carbon flux and inventory boundaries. Watch the video where Sander explains the basics of carbon accounting or continue reading the article covering the gist of Sander’s story.
The Earth absorbs sunlight in the visible spectrum and reflects it back into space as infrared light, with a much longer wavelength. Greenhouse gases (#1) absorb this infrared light, preventing it from escaping the atmosphere and instead warming up the earth.
Examples of these gases are CO2 (#2) methane and water nitrous oxide. Since all these gasses have different effects on the warming of the planet, they are usually expressed in tCO2e (#3) which is a standard unit for counting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions regardless of whether they're from carbon dioxide or another gas.
Keep in mind that when CO2 is absorbed by plants, they only store the carbon (#4) atom. The plant then releases the two oxygen atoms. When we measure the amount of carbon that is stored in biomass, always check if is expressed in carbon or tCO2e. You can convert C into tCO2e by multiplying the weight of C by ~3.667, which is the molecular weight of CO2 (44) divided by the molecular weight of C (12).
A carbon pool (#5) is a physical medium where a greenhouse gas or its constituent elements are stored, such as the atmosphere, oceans, or trees - but also products. If carbon is stored in a product, for example, wood for the construction industry, it’s called a product carbon pool (#6).
Carbon flux (#7) is a transfer of GHG between pools. This includes emissions (#8) - the transfer of GHG from a source (#9) into the atmosphere - and removals (#10) - the transfer of GHG from the atmosphere into another pool, which is called the sink (#11).
All of these are relevant when calculating a GHG Inventory (#12): an assessment of the annual direct emissions and removals within the reporting entity’s inventory boundary (#13). The inventory boundary is defined as all businesses, operations lands, and activities that the entity has Operational, Financial, or Equity control over.
Besides direct emissions, which are considered an entity’s Scope 1 (#14) emissions, entities also have to report the emissions from the energy they purchase in the form of electricity, heat, steam, and cooling. They are reported as their Scope 2 (#15) emissions. Scope 3 (#16) contains all emissions in an entity’s value chain (both upstream and downstream).
For coffee and cocoa trading companies, scope 3 is by far the largest source of emissions, especially due to deforestation, which is referred to as Land-Use Change (#17), and agricultural practices (which are called Land Management (#18) emissions.
When companies set a target for Net Zero (#19), which usually follows the guidance of the Science-Based Targets initiative they commit to reducing (#20) 90-95% of their emissions. This is called within value chain mitigation (#21), sometimes called Insetting (#22), although the definition of insetting has a lot of different interpretations. If we follow the guidance from the SBTi (#23), companies can neutralize the remaining 5-10% of their emissions using beyond value chain mitigation (#24), also called offsetting (#25).
The SBTi requires companies to use only offsets that are based on removals (#26), for example, afforestation, and not use offsets that are based on reductions (#27), such as carbon projects Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, or REDD+ (#28). Again, please keep in mind that companies first have to reduce 90-95% of their own emissions, including those from land-use change and land management before using these removals.
Companies can also claim carbon neutrality (#29) under a number of voluntary certification schemes. Typically these certifications require a Paris Aligned (#30) emission reduction plan, so in line with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and allows the company to compensate for the remaining emissions with carbon credits. Keep in mind that under the new EU Green Claims Directive (#31) many of these claims will soon no longer be allowed, but that will be the subject of a future blog!
