Frequently Asked Questions

Roughly half of global warming is caused by super pollutants, including methane, nitrous oxide (N₂O), black carbon, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Super pollutants have a much stronger warming effect than CO₂ over shorter time scales, and they cause drastic health and environmental harm. However, conventional climate accounting measures pollutants over a 100-year timeframe (GWP-100), which undervalues and overlooks the most potent near-term atmospheric heat drivers.

While reducing and removing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions is critical, we must complement these efforts by reducing super pollutants, especially those that are short-lived in the atmosphere, in the crucial next decade to avoid irreversible environmental “tipping points.” In fact, by reducing these pollutants alone, we can avoid up to 0.6°C of global warming by 2050. In that same timeframe, CO₂ reductions alone, which make their biggest impact in the long-term, would yield just 0.1°C in avoided warming.

Our climate accounting framework accounts for all climate drivers, not just CO₂ and other well-mixed greenhouse gases. It also includes short-lived climate super pollutants, including particulate matter, and is being built out to address other non-emission factors as well, such as albedo (earth’s reflectivity) that directly affect heat.

Of particular importance, the Framework makes it possible to calculate results over any timeframe, not just the conventional 100-year horizon (GWP-100), to enable decision makers to evaluate impacts over important near-term planning time horizons and meet the urgency of global warming.

The scientific basis of GHR’s Total Climate Accounting is the Radiative Forcing Protocol, which was created as a practical application of the newest consensus findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and published in 2023. It was reviewed by members of the Scientific Advisory Panel of the UNEP-convened Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), chaired by Dr. Drew Shindell, professor of the Earth Science at Duke University and leading expert on short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs). Learn more about the science here.

Traditionally, carbon dioxide (CO₂) has served as the reference gas against which we measure the potency of other greenhouse gases. This potency is expressed as carbon dioxide equivalency, or CO₂e.

Global Heat Reduction’s Total Climate Accounting provides much more information – hence the “PLUS”. It represents decision-relevant insights that drive more informed mitigation investments (such as abatement, insetting, or offsetting) and greater impact. With actual heat outcome assessments rather than simply CO₂e metric ton outputs, corporations, government agencies, and other organizations can slow the rate of warming in the near-term and thereby lowering risks and increasing climate ROI.

While conventional carbon footprints report the total metric tons of CO₂e based on an assessment of greenhouse gases over 100 years, the Total Climate Footprint is more comprehensive, both in terms of the range of climate drivers included, and by reporting actual global heat impacts as well as CO₂e over any timeframe of interest. In this way, it provides critical data to drive mitigation investments where they matter most, helping to reduce risk and increase the integrity of climate impact reduction claims with quantified environmental and health co-benefits and trade-offs.

The Total Climate Footprint can be added onto your existing carbon footprint to bring you greater insight into your impacts and options, or can calculated by our team from scratch. It can also be independently verified by a respected third-party verification body.

Learn more about our footprint here.

Any public or private sector organization – corporation, governmental jurisdiction or agency, institution, or NGO – that wants to assess its full climate impact, determine climate heat reduction impacts from mitigation strategies or credit purchases, or make claims about their efforts, can benefit from Total Climate Accounting. This includes private companies, government entities, NGOs, and others who have a scope of emissions or activities that affect the climate. Our services are applicable organization-wide, or by region, facility, product, or initiative.

Learn more here.