What is carbon dioxide equivalent co2e?

Carbon dioxide equivalent or CO equivalent ₂ , abbreviated CO ₂ - eq , is a metric measure used to compare emissions from different greenhouse gases based on their global warming potential (GWP) by converting the amount of other gases into an equivalent. amount of carbon dioxide with the same global warming potential. Carbon dioxide equivalents are commonly expressed as million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents,  abbreviated  MMTCDE . The carbon dioxide equivalent for a gas is derived by multiplying the tonnes of gas by the associated GWP:

MMTCDE = (million metric tons of gas) * (GWP of gas).

For example, the GWP for methane is 25 and for nitrous oxide is 298. This means that emissions of 1 million metric tons of methane and nitrous oxide are equivalent to emissions of 25 and 298 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, respectively.