Vital Tools for Stabilizing Our Climate
Applying IPCC-Vetted Climate Science
Advance Your Climate Goals through a More Comprehensive Approach
Today’s climate strategies rely heavily on carbon accounting that measures GHG emissions in CO₂-equivalent terms over 100 years. While essential, this approach undervalues or overlooks the impacts of super pollutants that drive near-term atmospheric warming. As a result, organizations often lack the information needed to identify the most effective climate interventions over the next few critical decades.
GHR closes this gap through Total Climate Accounting™, a scientifically robust framework integrating traditional carbon measurement with the quantification of heat outcomes. It is built on the backbone of IPCC-vetted science, with radiative forcing as the common underlying metric.
At the core of this CO₂e-PLUS framework is the Total Climate Footprint, which combines conventional carbon footprinting (CO₂e 100-yrs.) with a Heatprint™ that measures the real-world warming impact of emissions across time horizons and pollutants. The Heatprint captures the full range of short-lived climate super pollutants –including methane, refrigerants, and air pollutants such as black carbon and ozone –that play an outsized role in near-term warming.
See our Technical Paper here providing more details about the Total Climate Accounting Framework.
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Graph created by CCAC | www.ccacoalition.orgWhat's Driving Near-Term Heat
Roughly half of today’s warming and nearly all of the accelerating heat we feel between now and 2050 comes from short-lived super pollutants like methane, black carbon, and HFCs.
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Graph created by CCAC | www.ccacoalition.orgStaying Focused on the Paris Agreement Temperature Threshold
Only by tackling short-lived climate pollutants along with carbon dioxide do climate models show that we can effectively hold global mean surface temperature below 2°C above normal by 2050.
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Node 3 (Changes in Radiative Forcing)
This node in the stressor-effects chain has the strongest quantitative linkage to both the initial stressor and the endpoints. It is the underlying metric used to establish stressor equivalencies. Sustained changes will alter earth’s energy balance and set into motion changes in atmospheric and ocean circulation systems, impact global and regional temperatures, and lead to extensive ecological and human health impacts.
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Sustained Global Warming Exceeding 1.5 – 2.0°C Above Normal Must Be Avoided
The importance of near-term heat reduction to global commerce and well-being cannot be overstated.
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