Climate Impact

Climate impact is the direct or indirect effect that an activity, product, service or policy has on the Earth's climate system, primarily through the emission or removal of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The concept covers contributions to global warming as well as influences on precipitation patterns, extreme weather events and feedback mechanisms in the climate system.

It is a broader idea than the carbon footprint: while the carbon footprint expresses results as a single figure of CO2 equivalent, climate impact also considers how those emissions translate into physical changes. The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) established that the decade 2011-2020 was around 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, warming unequivocally attributed to human activity. The record has kept climbing since, and recent years have already exceeded 1.4 degrees Celsius as an annual average above those levels. The main driver is the accumulation of GHGs from burning fossil fuels and land-use change.

Main indicators

• Global Warming Potential (GWP): the warming effect of each gas, usually over a 100-year horizon.
• CO2 equivalent (CO2e): a common unit that adds up different gases by their GWP.
• Radiative forcing (W/m2): the change in the Earth's energy balance.

Main sources of impact

• Energy: fossil fuels and electricity generation.
• Land use: deforestation and intensive agriculture.
• Industrial processes: cement, chemicals and steel.
• Transport: aviation, shipping and road transport.

How climate impact is assessed

• Corporate and national greenhouse gas inventories.
• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for products and services.
• Economic indicators such as the carbon price and the social cost of carbon.

Tools and standards

• The GHG Protocol and ISO 14064 for quantifying emissions.
• IFRS S2, the ISSB climate disclosure standard that absorbed the recommendations of the former TCFD. The TCFD task force was disbanded in 2023 and monitoring passed to the IFRS Foundation, so IFRS S2, not the TCFD, is the live framework for reporting climate-related risks.
• Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for product-level reporting.

Mitigation and adaptation

• Decarbonisation: renewable energy, efficiency and carbon capture.
• Resilience: climate-smart infrastructure and adaptation planning.
• Circular economy: reducing the use of virgin resources.

Understanding and reducing climate impact is essential to limit global warming and protect ecological and socio-economic systems. At Manglai we help companies measure their carbon footprint and prepare their sustainability reporting. Discover how Manglai can help you.