carbon emitted (tCO2eq)
measured in "metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent." It is a unit of measurement used to express the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, industrial processes, deforestation, agriculture, and recently training large-scale generative AI models. The term "equivalent" is used because different greenhouse gases have varying global warming potentials (GWP), meaning they trap different amounts of heat in the atmosphere over specific time frames. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most common greenhouse gas emitted by human activities, but there are other greenhouse gases like methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), which are more potent in terms of their heat-trapping ability compared to CO2. When calculating the total greenhouse gas emissions, the contributions of different gases are converted into a common unit of measurement, which is the metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2eq), to provide a standardized and comparable value for the total impact on climate change. By using tCO2eq, it becomes easier to understand the overall environmental impact of various activities and implement strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change.