The footprint family and the environmental pressures they represent
Carbon Footprint Scientific Question What is the total amount of Greenhouse Gases–(CO2, CH4, N2O, HFC, PFC and SF6) emitted directly or indirectly as a result of human activities or accumulated along the life cycle of products? Principal Message The Carbon Footprint2 is mainly based on the consumption of goods and services and the greenhouse gases generated by that consumption. Thus it serves as complement to the inventories made by the Kyoto Protocol that calculate the greenhouse gas balance sheets associated to production only. Data and sources The Carbon Footprint makes use of: • Economic data from national accounts (Materials–Products matrixes, Supply, utilization and others); •
International trade statistics (UN, OECD, GTAP, and others);
•
Environmental Accounts data on GG emissions (IEA, GTAP, and others).
Unit of Measurement The Carbon Footprint may measure total carbon or carbon equivalent (CO2e3) that is emitted directly or indirectly by a given human activity or accumulated during the useful life of a product. The unit used to express it is the Kg of CO2 when only carbon dioxide is being considered, or Kg of carbon equivalent when other greenhouse gases are being taken into account as well. To avoid suppositions and introducing uncertainties, there is no conversion to express it in terms of area. Often however it is expressed in units per capita.
2 Carbon Footprint is used here to determine emissions associated to human production activities, which means that its significance is different from that of the GG emissions Inventory. 3
Carbon equivalent – defi nes the equivalence of other gases in relation to CO2.
The Ecological Footprint of São Paulo - State and Capital 2012 p.
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