10. Carbon Accounting

Carbon accounting is a way of calculating climate emissions. Various calculation methods can be used for this purpose.

Companies that voluntarily want to report their CO₂ emissions often use the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. This shows how many emissions are emitted directly (Scope 1) by the company, and indirectly, for example through electricity consumption, production of raw materials and use of products (Scope 2 and 3).

Lifecycle assessment, or LCA, is often used to calculate the carbon footprint of products. This adds up all emissions from raw material production to the end of the product's life cycle.

Furthermore, there are various methods that differ in the degree of user choice. With stricter methods, the end results are easier to compare between different products. The Renewable Energy Directive contains a detailed method for calculating carbon footprints of renewable fuels and comparing them with emissions from fossil fuels.

When calculating the climate gain from using renewable fuels, we look at the entire life cycle of the product. The production of the raw material and conversion to fuel are usually responsible for most of the emissions. If greenhouse gases other than CO₂ are emitted somewhere in the chain, such as methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O), these are expressed in CO₂ equivalents. Ultimately, the climate impact of the fuel is expressed in grams of CO₂ equivalent per megajoule of energy produced. This figure can then be compared with the impact of fossil fuels.