Which emission factor database should I use in 2026?
Choose by licence first, then coverage. Most databases let you compute with their values but not redistribute them — of the 285 sources we licence-reviewed, 169 may be passed on and 116 may not.
Every list of emission factor databases counts rows. Almost none read the licence — which is the only column that decides whether you can ship. We audited the terms of 285 sources one at a time: 169 permit redistribution, 116 do not. Along the way we found that the world’s most-cited emission factor library grants only personal, non-commercial use; that the IEA forbids using its emission factors to calculate footprints for third parties at all; and that the UK government quietly dropped a whole category of official factors because of an upstream licence change.
Which source for what you are measuring
Pick the activity, then read across: every source we hold for it, how far it reaches, and whether you may pass its values on. The table is rebuilt from the corpus and the licence registry whenever the data changes, so nothing in it is typed. The two permissions it shows are explained in the next section.
23 activities · 84 sources · data version 2026.272 · generated from the corpus and the licence registry; no factor values on this table.
Your footprint, activity by activity
Grid electricity (location-based)Scope 2Widest you may pass on: EPA eGRID (Puerto Rico, United States)
- EPA eGRID Puerto Rico, United StatesUS EPA eGRID 2023 rev2 (data year 2023, published 2025)US Environmental Protection Agency · read the explainer80 rows · updates: annual (January, ~2yr lag from data year) · retrieved 2026-05-20
- ECCC NIR 2026 CanadaNational Inventory Report 1990-2024: Greenhouse Gas Sources and Sinks in Canada — Annex 6 (Emission Factors) and Annex 7 (Electricity in Canada: Summary and Intensity Tables)Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)14 rows · updates: annual — submitted to the UNFCCC each April · retrieved 2026-08-15
- DCCEEW NGA 2026 AustraliaNational Greenhouse Accounts Factors 2026Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), Australian Government9 rows · updates: annual (August) · retrieved 2026-10-09
- DEFRA 2026 UKUK Government GHG Conversion Factors 2026Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) · read the explainer1 row · updates: annual (June) · retrieved 2026-06-18
- ADEME Base Empreinte FranceADEME Base Carbone® — French national emission factor databaseAgence de la transition écologique (ADEME) · read the explainer1 row · updates: continuous (dataset last updated 2026-06-30) · retrieved 2026-08-13
- CBS 2024 NetherlandsEnergie- en emissiefactoren elektriciteit volgens de integrale methode, 2000-2024 (Tabel 1)Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS)1 row · updates: annual · retrieved 2026-08-19
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=grid Grid Electricity table (no key needed to browse)
Which countries: coverage for this activity
Market-based / residual mixScope 2Widest you may pass on: AIB Residual Mix (31 countries)
- AIB Residual Mix 31 countriesAIB European Residual Mixes 2025 (published 28 May 2026; covers calendar year 2025)Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB) · read the explainer31 rows · updates: annual (late May, ~1yr lag from data year) · retrieved 2026-06-19
- Green-e Residual Mix Puerto Rico, United StatesGreen-e Residual Mix Emissions Rates 2025 (2023 data; released 29 January 2026)Center for Resource Solutions (Green-e) · read the explainer27 rows · updates: annual (winter, ~2yr lag from data year) · retrieved 2026-06-19
- DCCEEW NGA 2026 AustraliaNational Greenhouse Accounts Factors 2026Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), Australian Government1 row · updates: annual (August) · retrieved 2026-10-09
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=grid Grid Electricity table (no key needed to browse)
Which countries: coverage for this activity
Transmission & distributionScope 3 · category 3Widest you may pass on: WORLD BANK 2024 (149 countries)
- WORLD BANK 2024 149 countriesWorld Bank Open Data — Indicator EG.ELC.LOSS.ZS: Electric power transmission and distribution losses (% of output)World Bank Group (compiled from IEA Statistics + national grid operators)149 rows · updates: annual indicator refresh · retrieved 2026-08-13
- DCCEEW NGA 2026 AustraliaNational Greenhouse Accounts Factors 2026Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), Australian Government8 rows · updates: annual (August) · retrieved 2026-10-09
- DEFRA 2026 UKUK Government GHG Conversion Factors 2026Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) · read the explainer4 rows · updates: annual (June) · retrieved 2026-06-18
- ADEME Base Empreinte FranceADEME Base Carbone® — French national emission factor databaseAgence de la transition écologique (ADEME) · read the explainer1 row · updates: continuous (dataset last updated 2026-06-30) · retrieved 2026-08-13
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=transmission_distribution Transmission & Distribution table (no key needed to browse)
Which countries: coverage for this activity
Stationary fuel combustionScope 1 / Outside the scopesWidest you may pass on: DEFRA 2026 (UK)
- DEFRA 2026 UKUK Government GHG Conversion Factors 2026Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) · read the explainer221 rows · updates: annual (June) · retrieved 2026-06-18
- EPA GHG 2025 United StatesUS EPA GHG Emission Factors Hub 2025 (Tables 1, 2, 7, 9, 10 — stationary + mobile combustion, steam & heat, waste, business travel & employee commuting)US Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Corporate Climate Leadership39 rows · updates: annual (January) · retrieved 2026-06-04
- DCCEEW NGA 2026 AustraliaNational Greenhouse Accounts Factors 2026Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), Australian Government18 rows · updates: annual (August) · retrieved 2026-10-09
- ADEME Base Empreinte FranceADEME Base Carbone® — French national emission factor databaseAgence de la transition écologique (ADEME) · read the explainer8 rows · updates: continuous (dataset last updated 2026-06-30) · retrieved 2026-08-13
- ECCC EF 2025 CanadaEmission Factors and Reference Values, Version 3.0Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)7 rows · updates: aligned with the annual National Inventory Report · retrieved 2026-08-10
- CO2emissiefactoren.nl NetherlandsCO2emissiefactoren.nl — Nederlandse lijst CO2-emissiefactoren 2026 (dd 16-08-2026)Rijkswaterstaat and Stichting Stimular, for the collaboration with Milieu Centraal, SKAO, Connekt and the Dutch government35 rows · updates: annual · retrieved 2026-08-16
- IPCC 2006 Guidelines no country taggedIPCC 2006 Guidelines for National GHG Inventories, Volume 2 (Energy)IPCC / IGES · read the explainer37 rows · updates: stable; Vol 2 energy combustion defaults unchanged through the 2019 Refinement · retrieved 2026-06-07
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=fuels Fuel Combustion table (no key needed to browse)
Which countries: coverage for this activity
Mobile combustionScope 1Widest you may pass on: DEFRA 2026 (UK)
- DEFRA 2026 UKUK Government GHG Conversion Factors 2026Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) · read the explainer60 rows · updates: annual (June) · retrieved 2026-06-18
- ECCC NIR 2026 CanadaNational Inventory Report 1990-2024: Greenhouse Gas Sources and Sinks in Canada — Annex 6 (Emission Factors) and Annex 7 (Electricity in Canada: Summary and Intensity Tables)Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)25 rows · updates: annual — submitted to the UNFCCC each April · retrieved 2026-08-15
- EPA GHG 2025 United StatesUS EPA GHG Emission Factors Hub 2025 (Tables 1, 2, 7, 9, 10 — stationary + mobile combustion, steam & heat, waste, business travel & employee commuting)US Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Corporate Climate Leadership19 rows · updates: annual (January) · retrieved 2026-06-04
- DCCEEW NGA 2026 AustraliaNational Greenhouse Accounts Factors 2026Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), Australian Government16 rows · updates: annual (August) · retrieved 2026-10-09
- ADEME Base Empreinte FranceADEME Base Carbone® — French national emission factor databaseAgence de la transition écologique (ADEME) · read the explainer4 rows · updates: continuous (dataset last updated 2026-06-30) · retrieved 2026-08-13
- CO2emissiefactoren.nl NetherlandsCO2emissiefactoren.nl — Nederlandse lijst CO2-emissiefactoren 2026 (dd 16-08-2026)Rijkswaterstaat and Stichting Stimular, for the collaboration with Milieu Centraal, SKAO, Connekt and the Dutch government25 rows · updates: annual · retrieved 2026-08-16
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=mobile_combustion Mobile Combustion table (no key needed to browse)
Which countries: coverage for this activity
Well-to-tank / upstream fuelScope 3 · category 3Widest you may pass on: DEFRA 2026 (UK)
- DEFRA 2026 UKUK Government GHG Conversion Factors 2026Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) · read the explainer164 rows · updates: annual (June) · retrieved 2026-06-18
- NETL ELEC 2026 United StatesNETL US Electricity Baseline v1.2026-06.0 (openLCA library, process version 03.00.000)National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), US Department of Energy142 rows · updates: periodic (library v1.2026-06.0; process lastChange 2026-06-08) · retrieved 2026-08-15
- ECCC FUEL 2024 CanadaFuel Life Cycle Assessment Model — August 2024 databaseEnvironment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)43 rows · updates: periodic — a 2026 version is in pre-publication · retrieved 2026-08-16
- DCCEEW NGA 2026 AustraliaNational Greenhouse Accounts Factors 2026Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), Australian Government39 rows · updates: annual (August) · retrieved 2026-10-09
- ADEME Base Empreinte FranceADEME Base Carbone® — French national emission factor databaseAgence de la transition écologique (ADEME) · read the explainer13 rows · updates: continuous (dataset last updated 2026-06-30) · retrieved 2026-08-13
- CO2emissiefactoren.nl NetherlandsCO2emissiefactoren.nl — Nederlandse lijst CO2-emissiefactoren 2026 (dd 16-08-2026)Rijkswaterstaat and Stichting Stimular, for the collaboration with Milieu Centraal, SKAO, Connekt and the Dutch government36 rows · updates: annual · retrieved 2026-08-16
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=fuels_wtt Well-to-Tank (Upstream) table (no key needed to browse)
Which countries: coverage for this activity
District heat & steamScope 2Widest you may pass on: EUROSTAT NRG 2024 (37 countries)
- EUROSTAT NRG 2024 37 countriesEUROSTAT — Share of energy from renewable sources (indicator nrg_ind_ren)European Statistical Office (EUROSTAT) — DG Eurostat38 rows · updates: annual (typically June-August release of prior calendar year data) · retrieved 2026-05-21
- DEFRA 2026 UKUK Government GHG Conversion Factors 2026Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) · read the explainer4 rows · updates: annual (June) · retrieved 2026-06-18
- EPA GHG 2025 United StatesUS EPA GHG Emission Factors Hub 2025 (Tables 1, 2, 7, 9, 10 — stationary + mobile combustion, steam & heat, waste, business travel & employee commuting)US Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Corporate Climate Leadership2 rows · updates: annual (January) · retrieved 2026-06-04
- DEFRA 2025 UKUK Government GHG Conversion Factors 2025Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) · read the explainer1 row · updates: annual (June) · retrieved 2025-06-15
- HRE4 HEAT 2018 no country taggedHeat Roadmap Europe 4 (HRE4) — quantifying the impact of low-carbon heating and cooling roadmaps for 14 EU countriesAalborg University (Paardekooper et al.) + 24-partner consortium; EU Horizon 2020 grant 6959891 row · updates: project completed 2019; supplanted by Heat Roadmap Europe 5 follow-on (HRE5) · retrieved 2026-05-21
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=district_heating District Heating table (no key needed to browse)
Which countries: coverage for this activity
Business travelScope 3 · categories 3 and 6Widest you may pass on: DEFRA 2026 (UK)
- DEFRA 2026 UKUK Government GHG Conversion Factors 2026Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) · read the explainer228 rows · updates: annual (June) · retrieved 2026-06-18
- Emissions Reporting Framework 2025-26 AustraliaEmissions Reporting Framework 2025-26 — Tables and FiguresDepartment of Finance, Australian Government58 rows · updates: annual · retrieved 2026-08-16
- EPA GHG 2025 United StatesUS EPA GHG Emission Factors Hub 2025 (Tables 1, 2, 7, 9, 10 — stationary + mobile combustion, steam & heat, waste, business travel & employee commuting)US Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Corporate Climate Leadership12 rows · updates: annual (January) · retrieved 2026-06-04
- ADEME Base Empreinte FranceADEME Base Carbone® — French national emission factor databaseAgence de la transition écologique (ADEME) · read the explainer5 rows · updates: continuous (dataset last updated 2026-06-30) · retrieved 2026-08-13
- CO2emissiefactoren.nl NetherlandsCO2emissiefactoren.nl — Nederlandse lijst CO2-emissiefactoren 2026 (dd 16-08-2026)Rijkswaterstaat and Stichting Stimular, for the collaboration with Milieu Centraal, SKAO, Connekt and the Dutch government94 rows · updates: annual · retrieved 2026-08-16
- ICAO Aviation no country taggedICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator MethodologyInternational Civil Aviation Organization · read the explainer429 rows · updates: annual · retrieved 2026-05-20
- IATA RP 1726 no country taggedIATA RP 1726 Passenger CO2 CalculationInternational Air Transport Association · read the explainer1 row · updates: annual · retrieved 2026-05-20
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=business_travel Business Travel table (no key needed to browse)
Which countries: coverage for this activity
Employee commutingScope 3 · categories 6 and 7Widest you may pass on: Emissions Reporting Framework 2025-26 (Australia)
- Emissions Reporting Framework 2025-26 AustraliaEmissions Reporting Framework 2025-26 — Tables and FiguresDepartment of Finance, Australian Government58 rows · updates: annual · retrieved 2026-08-16
- DEFRA 2026 UKUK Government GHG Conversion Factors 2026Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) · read the explainer30 rows · updates: annual (June) · retrieved 2026-06-18
- EPA GHG 2025 United StatesUS EPA GHG Emission Factors Hub 2025 (Tables 1, 2, 7, 9, 10 — stationary + mobile combustion, steam & heat, waste, business travel & employee commuting)US Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Corporate Climate Leadership9 rows · updates: annual (January) · retrieved 2026-06-04
- ADEME Base Empreinte FranceADEME Base Carbone® — French national emission factor databaseAgence de la transition écologique (ADEME) · read the explainer5 rows · updates: continuous (dataset last updated 2026-06-30) · retrieved 2026-08-13
- CO2emissiefactoren.nl NetherlandsCO2emissiefactoren.nl — Nederlandse lijst CO2-emissiefactoren 2026 (dd 16-08-2026)Rijkswaterstaat and Stichting Stimular, for the collaboration with Milieu Centraal, SKAO, Connekt and the Dutch government82 rows · updates: annual · retrieved 2026-08-16
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=business_travel Business Travel table · GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=commuting Commuting table (no key needed to browse)
Which countries: coverage for this activity
Hotel staysScope 3 · category 6Widest you may pass on: DEFRA 2026 (38 countries)
- DEFRA 2026 38 countriesUK Government GHG Conversion Factors 2026Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) · read the explainer39 rows · updates: annual (June) · retrieved 2026-06-18
- Cornell HCMI 10 countriesCornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking IndexCornell University SHA · read the explainer52 rows · updates: annual · retrieved 2026-05-20
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=hotel_stay Hotel Stay table (no key needed to browse)
Which countries: coverage for this activity
Waste disposalScope 3 · category 5 / Scope 1Widest you may pass on: EPA GHG 2025 (United States)
- EPA GHG 2025 United StatesUS EPA GHG Emission Factors Hub 2025 (Tables 1, 2, 7, 9, 10 — stationary + mobile combustion, steam & heat, waste, business travel & employee commuting)US Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Corporate Climate Leadership183 rows · updates: annual (January) · retrieved 2026-06-04
- DEFRA 2026 UKUK Government GHG Conversion Factors 2026Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) · read the explainer139 rows · updates: annual (June) · retrieved 2026-06-18
- ADEME Base Empreinte FranceADEME Base Carbone® — French national emission factor databaseAgence de la transition écologique (ADEME) · read the explainer34 rows · updates: continuous (dataset last updated 2026-06-30) · retrieved 2026-08-13
- ECCC NIR 2026 CanadaNational Inventory Report 1990-2024: Greenhouse Gas Sources and Sinks in Canada — Annex 6 (Emission Factors) and Annex 7 (Electricity in Canada: Summary and Intensity Tables)Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)19 rows · updates: annual — submitted to the UNFCCC each April · retrieved 2026-08-15
- DCCEEW NGA 2026 AustraliaNational Greenhouse Accounts Factors 2026Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), Australian Government3 rows · updates: annual (August) · retrieved 2026-10-09
- IPCC 2006 Guidelines 12 countriesIPCC 2006 Guidelines Vol 5 — WasteIPCC · read the explainer176 rows · updates: refinements periodic · retrieved 2026-05-20
- CO2emissiefactoren.nl NetherlandsCO2emissiefactoren.nl — Nederlandse lijst CO2-emissiefactoren 2026 (dd 16-08-2026)Rijkswaterstaat and Stichting Stimular, for the collaboration with Milieu Centraal, SKAO, Connekt and the Dutch government31 rows · updates: annual · retrieved 2026-08-16
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=waste_disposal Waste Disposal Routes table · GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=waste Waste table (no key needed to browse)
Which countries: coverage for this activity
Water supply & treatmentScope 3 · categories 1 and 5Widest you may pass on: DEFRA 2026 (UK)
- DEFRA 2026 UKUK Government GHG Conversion Factors 2026Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) · read the explainer2 rows · updates: annual (June) · retrieved 2026-06-18
- ADEME Base Empreinte FranceADEME Base Carbone® — French national emission factor databaseAgence de la transition écologique (ADEME) · read the explainer2 rows · updates: continuous (dataset last updated 2026-06-30) · retrieved 2026-08-13
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=water Water table (no key needed to browse)
Which countries: coverage for this activity
Spend-based / EEIOScope 3 · category 1Widest you may pass on: Eurostat Accounts (27 countries)
- Eurostat Accounts 27 countriesEurostat direct GHG intensity by NACE Rev. 2: Air Emissions Accounts (env_ac_ainah_r2) ÷ gross value added (nama_10_a64)Eurostat (European Statistical Office, European Commission) · read the explainer2,039 rows · updates: annual (AEA published Q4, GVA published Q1-Q3 lag of T-2 to T-3) · retrieved 2026-06-08
- USEEIO Emission Factors United StatesSupply Chain Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors for U.S. Commodities v1.4.0 (NAICS-6, 2024 USD purchaser price)Ingwersen, W. (Stanford University) and Young, B. (ERG); published 2025-10-14 via Zenodo through the Cornerstone Sustainability Data Initiative (Stanford Sustainable Solutions Lab, Watershed, ERG; founded August 2025; now the home of USEEIO); generated from USEEIO v2.6.0 · read the explainer1,133 rows · updates: irregular (v1.0 2019, v1.1 2020, v1.2 2022, v1.3 2024, v1.4 2025) · retrieved 2026-08-13
- STATCAN 2026 CanadaDirect plus indirect energy and greenhouse gas emissions intensity, by industry — Table 38-10-0098-01, February 2026 releaseStatistics Canada, Environment Accounts and Statistics Division109 rows · updates: annual · retrieved 2026-08-16
- DEFRA SPEND 2023 UKSpend-based emissions multipliers, 1997 to 2023 (UK and England's carbon footprint to 2023)Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra)27 rows · updates: annual (with UK and England's carbon footprint) · retrieved 2026-10-06
- ONS AEA 2025 UKUK ONS Atmospheric Emissions: GHG Emissions Intensity by Economic Sector, 5 June 2026 releaseOffice for National Statistics (UK); prepared by Ricardo Energy and Environment under contract with ONS18 rows · updates: annual (June), with interim corrections · retrieved 2026-08-06
- Exiobase Emission Factors no country taggedEXIOBASE v3.8 Multi-Regional Input-Output DatabaseEXIOBASE consortium (NTNU, Leiden, TNO et al.) · read the explainer26 rows · updates: periodic versions · retrieved 2026-06-15
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=spend_based Spend-Based Intensity table (no key needed to browse)
Which countries: coverage for this activity
Products, sectors and regulation
Grid intensity for any country (lifecycle; not a Scope 2 factor)Outside the scopesWidest you may pass on: Ember Electricity Data (214 countries)
- Ember Electricity Data 214 countriesEmber Yearly Electricity Data (2025 release)Ember Climate · read the explainer214 rows · updates: monthly refresh; yearly long-format CSV updated Q1 · retrieved 2026-05-20
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=grid_lifecycle (no key needed to browse)
Freight and logisticsScope 3 · category 4Widest you may pass on: GLEC Framework (no country tagged)
- GLEC Framework no country taggedSmart Freight Centre GLEC Framework for Logistics Emissions Accounting and Reporting v3.2Smart Freight Centre · read the explainer381 rows · updates: periodic major versions · retrieved 2026-05-18
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=freight_detailed Freight (Detailed) table · GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=freight (no key needed to browse)
Construction and purchased materialsScope 3 · categories 1 and 2Widest you may pass on: ÖKOBAUDAT 2024 (no country tagged)
- ÖKOBAUDAT 2024 no country taggedÖKOBAUDAT 2024 (Release I) — German federal LCA database for building materialsBundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung (BBSR) / Bundesministerium für Wohnen, Stadtentwicklung und Bauwesen (BMWSB) · read the explainer292 rows · updates: two releases per year (Release I early-year, Release II mid-year) · retrieved 2026-05-20
- DEFRA 2026 no country taggedUK Government GHG Conversion Factors 2026Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) · read the explainer26 rows · updates: annual (June) · retrieved 2026-06-18
- EU CBAM no country taggedCommission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1740 of 20 July 2026 correcting Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2621 as regards the establishment of default valuesEuropean Commission DG TAXUD · read the explainer14 rows · updates: periodic Commission updates per Art. 7 of Reg (EU) 2023/956 · retrieved 2026-08-13
- WRAP NWT no country taggedWRAP Net Waste Tool — construction material wastage rates (baseline / good practice)WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme)6 rows · updates: retired tool (archived figures) · retrieved 2026-06-16
- LETI 2020 no country taggedLETI Embodied Carbon Primer + Carbon AlignmentLETI (London Energy Transformation Initiative)6 rows · updates: irregular · retrieved 2026-06-16
- MPA FS18 2025 no country taggedMPA Cement Fact Sheet 18 — Embodied CO2e of UK cements (Revision 4)Mineral Products Association (MPA Cement), London5 rows · updates: revised periodically (Rev 4 = 10 April 2025) · retrieved 2026-06-16
- ICE Database no country taggedInventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE) Version 2.0 — open 2011 release (Hammond & Jones, University of Bath)Prof. Geoff Hammond & Craig Jones, Sustainable Energy Research Team (SERT), University of Bath · read the explainer3 rows · updates: superseded by commercial v3/v4 (open v2.0 used here only for non-binder concrete constituents not in OEKOBAUDAT offline) · retrieved 2026-06-16
- European Aluminium no country taggedEuropean Aluminium — Environmental Profile Report 2024 (V.2.0)European Aluminium (Brussels); generic European industry LCI per ISO 14040/14044, critically reviewed by Prof. Dr. Matthias Finkbeiner · read the explainer3 rows · updates: periodic editions (2013, 2015, 2018, 2024 V1.0 Nov-2024, V2.0 May-2025) · retrieved 2026-06-16
- RIBA 2030 no country taggedRIBA 2030 Climate Challenge (version 2)Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)2 rows · updates: irregular · retrieved 2026-06-16
- EN 15978 no country taggedEN 15978:2011 Sustainability of construction works — Assessment of environmental performance of buildings — Calculation methodCEN — European Committee for Standardization (TC 350) · read the explainer17 rows · updates: periodic CEN review (revision in progress, expected EN 15978:2026) · retrieved 2026-05-20
- IPCC 2006 Guidelines no country taggedIPCC 2006 Guidelines Vol 5 — WasteIPCC · read the explainer12 rows · updates: refinements periodic · retrieved 2026-05-20
- RICS WLCA no country taggedWhole Life Carbon Assessment for the Built Environment, RICS Professional Standard, 2nd editionRoyal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) · read the explainer10 rows · updates: irregular (editions) · retrieved 2026-06-16
- BCIS LEBC no country taggedLife Expectancy of Building Components (BCIS / RICS)Building Cost Information Service (BCIS), part of RICS10 rows · updates: periodic surveys · retrieved 2026-06-16
- WORLDSTEEL SI 2025 no country taggedSustainability Indicators 2025 (data year 2024)World Steel Association (worldsteel), Brussels4 rows · updates: annual (worldsteel Sustainability Indicators report; this edition revised February 2026) · retrieved 2026-10-09
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=materials Materials table (no key needed to browse)
Food productsOutside the scopesWidest you may pass on: ADEME AGRIBALYSE (France)
- ADEME AGRIBALYSE FranceADEME AGRIBALYSE® v3.2 — French food product life-cycle database (Synthèse)Agence de la transition écologique (ADEME) / INRAE2,451 rows · updates: periodic (dataset agribalyse-31-synthese, last updated 2026-06-30) · retrieved 2026-08-13
- SCARBOROUGH 2023 no country taggedVegans, vegetarians, fish-eaters and meat-eaters in the UK show discrepant environmental impactsP. Scarborough, M. Clark, L. Cobiac et al., Nature Food 4:565-5746 rows · updates: static (2023 study; EPIC-Oxford dietary intake × LCA, ~55,000 UK adults) · retrieved 2026-07-12
- GREENCALCULUS ASSUMPTION no country taggedGreenCalculus modelling assumption (not a published figure)GreenCalculus3 rows · updates: reviewed when the documents an assumption rests on are revised · retrieved 2026-09-21
- Poore & Nemecek 2018 no country taggedReducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumersJ. Poore & T. Nemecek, Science 360(6392):987-992 · read the explainer11 rows · updates: static (2018 meta-analysis of ~570 studies / 38,700 farms) · retrieved 2026-06-22
- IDF 2022 no country taggedThe IDF global Carbon Footprint standard for the dairy sectorInternational Dairy Federation (IDF)1 row · updates: periodic (supersedes Bulletin 479/2015; cradle-to-grave update) · retrieved 2026-06-22
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=food_pcf · GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=food Food table (no key needed to browse)
Refrigerant leaksScope 1Widest you may pass on: EU F-Gas 2024 (no country tagged)
- EU F-Gas 2024 no country taggedEU Regulation 2024/573 on fluorinated greenhouse gasesEuropean Commission · read the explainer8 rows · updates: amendments periodic · retrieved 2026-05-18
- IPCC AR6 no country taggedIPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) WGIIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change · read the explainer43 rows · updates: AR cycle (~7 years; AR7 expected ~2028) · retrieved 2026-10-15
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=refrigerants Refrigerants table (no key needed to browse)
Global warming potentialsOutside the scopesNo source here may be passed on
- IPCC AR6 no country taggedIPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) WGIIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change · read the explainer132 rows · updates: AR cycle (~7 years; AR7 expected ~2028) · retrieved 2026-10-15
- IPCC AR6 2025 no country taggedIPCC AR6 WGI Errata (version 7 October 2025): corrected Tables 7.15 and 7.SM.7Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change123 rows · updates: revised when the IPCC issues further errata (this file is version 7 October 2025) · retrieved 2026-10-15
- IPCC AR5 no country taggedIPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) WGIIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change35 rows · updates: superseded assessment - archival reference (AR5 2013); values are frozen · retrieved 2026-10-03
- IPCC AR4 no country taggedIPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) WGIIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change31 rows · updates: superseded assessment - archival reference (AR4 2007); values are frozen · retrieved 2026-09-07
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=gwp Global Warming Potentials table (no key needed to browse)
Industrial process and fugitive emissionsScope 1No source here may be passed on
- IPCC 2006 Vol 3 IPPU no country taggedIPCC 2006 Guidelines Vol 3 — IPPUIPCC · read the explainer182 rows · updates: refinements periodic · retrieved 2026-05-16
- IPCC 2019 (IPCC_2019_REFINEMENT) no country tagged2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (multi-volume: Vol 3 IPPU Ch 3 Chemical Industry + Ch 4 Metal Industry; Vol 4 AFOLU Ch 4 Forest Land + Ch 10 Livestock + Ch 11 N2O Soils & Lime/Urea)IPCC · read the explainer54 rows · updates: static (refinement; no scheduled revisions) · retrieved 2026-05-21
- IPCC 2019 (IPCC_2019_REFINEMENT_v1) no country taggedIPCC 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines Vol 2 Ch 4IPCC · read the explainer33 rows · updates: stable until next refinement · retrieved 2026-05-08
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=industrial_processes Industrial Processes (IPPU) table · GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=oil_gas Oil & Gas Methane table · GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=semiconductor_gases · GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=fugitive_coal_methane (no key needed to browse)
Agriculture, forestry and land useScope 1Widest you may pass on: DEFRA 2026 (no country tagged)
- DEFRA 2026 no country taggedUK Government GHG Conversion Factors 2025Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) · read the explainer2 rows · updates: annual (June) · retrieved 2025-06-15
- IPCC 2006 Guidelines no country taggedIPCC 2006 Guidelines Vol 4 — Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land UseIPCC · read the explainer3,036 rows · updates: refinements periodic (2019 Refinement supersedes Ch 10/11) · retrieved 2026-05-18
- IPCC 2019 no country tagged2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (multi-volume: Vol 3 IPPU Ch 3 Chemical Industry + Ch 4 Metal Industry; Vol 4 AFOLU Ch 4 Forest Land + Ch 10 Livestock + Ch 11 N2O Soils & Lime/Urea)IPCC · read the explainer132 rows · updates: static (refinement; no scheduled revisions) · retrieved 2026-05-21
- IPCC 2013 no country tagged2013 Supplement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories: WetlandsIPCC106 rows · updates: static (supplement; no scheduled revisions) · retrieved 2026-05-20
- IPCC AR6 no country taggedIPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) WGIIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change · read the explainer9 rows · updates: AR cycle (~7 years; AR7 expected ~2028) · retrieved 2026-10-15
- IPCC TIER1 no country taggedIPCC 2019 Refinement Vol 4 Ch 10 — Livestock and Manure (Tier 1 defaults)IPCC · read the explainer7 rows · updates: stable until next refinement (AR7 cycle ~2028) · retrieved 2026-05-08
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=afolu Agriculture, Forestry & Land Use table (no key needed to browse)
CBAM default valuesOutside the scopesWidest you may pass on: CBAM 2026 (5 countries)
- CBAM 2026 5 countriesCommission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1740 of 20 July 2026 correcting Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2621 as regards the establishment of default valuesEuropean Commission DG TAXUD · read the explainer1,533 rows · updates: periodic Commission updates per Art. 7 of Reg (EU) 2023/956 · retrieved 2026-08-13
- CBAM 2025 no country taggedCommission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2621 of 16 December 2025 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) 2023/956 as regards the establishment of default valuesEuropean Commission DG TAXUD · read the explainer136 rows · updates: periodic Commission updates per Art. 7 of Reg (EU) 2023/956 · retrieved 2026-05-20
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=cbam CBAM table (no key needed to browse)
Cloud and digital servicesScope 2 / Outside the scopesWidest you may pass on: GCP 2024 (28 countries)
- GCP 2024 28 countriesGoogle Cloud — Carbon free energy for Google Cloud regions (2024 data)Google LLC44 rows · updates: annual · retrieved 2026-05-21
- DIGST DK 2025 DenmarkDigst — Beregning af it-løsningers klimaaftryk (Danish Agency of Digital Government ICT-solution carbon-impact framework)Digitaliseringsstyrelsen (Digst)1 row · updates: periodic · retrieved 2026-05-21
- CLOUD 2024 no country taggedCloud Carbon Footprint — Methodology (Embodied Emissions + operational power model)Cloud Carbon Footprint (Thoughtworks, open-source)12 rows · updates: continuous (open-source project docs) · retrieved 2026-06-26
- GREENCALCULUS ASSUMPTION no country taggedGreenCalculus modelling assumption (not a published figure)GreenCalculus8 rows · updates: reviewed when the documents an assumption rests on are revised · retrieved 2026-09-21
- SWD MODEL (SWD_MODEL_V4) no country taggedSustainable Web Design Model — Estimating Digital Emissions (Version 4)Sustainable Web Design (with Wholegrain Digital, Mightybytes, The Green Web Foundation) · read the explainer16 rows · updates: periodic model revisions (v4 is the current major version, superseding v3) · retrieved 2026-07-04
- NVIDIA DC 2025 no country taggedNVIDIA Data Center GPU Datasheets — Tensor Core GPU specifications (H100, A100, L4, V100)NVIDIA Corporation12 rows · updates: per product release (point-in-time datasheet specifications) · retrieved 2026-06-27
- AWS 2026 no country taggedAWS Sustainability User Guide — Customer Carbon Footprint methodology and CSV reportsAmazon Web Services, Inc.9 rows · updates: monthly recasts; methodology versions tracked in console release notes · retrieved 2026-05-21
- PATTERSON LARGE 2021 no country taggedCarbon Emissions and Large Neural Network Training (Patterson, Gonzalez, Le, Liang, Munguia, Rothchild, So, Texier, Dean — Google + UC Berkeley, arXiv 2104.10350 v3)arXiv:2104.10350 v39 rows · updates: stable (v3 preprint) · retrieved 2026-05-21
- IEA AI 2025 no country taggedIEA — Key Questions on Energy and AI (2025)International Energy Agency7 rows · updates: followup to IEA Energy and AI 2025 report; periodic refresh · retrieved 2026-05-21
- LOVEHAGEN 2023 no country taggedAssessing embodied carbon emissions of communication user devices by combining approaches (Lövehagen, Malmodin, Bergmark, Matinfar — Ericsson Research)Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 183 (2023) 1134227 rows · updates: stable (single publication) · retrieved 2026-05-21
- EPOCH AI 2025 no country taggedHow much energy does ChatGPT use? (Epoch AI gradient-updates analysis)Epoch AI7 rows · updates: analysis update (point-in-time) · retrieved 2026-06-27
- SPECPOWER SSJ2008 no country taggedSPECpower_ssj2008 — server power-and-performance benchmark with full published resultsStandard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC)6 rows · updates: continuous result submission (current published results 2007–present) · retrieved 2026-05-21
- IEA 2020 no country taggedThe carbon footprint of streaming video: fact-checking the headlinesInternational Energy Agency (IEA), Paris — commentary by George Kamiya5 rows · updates: one-off commentary (2019 underlying data; not periodically revised) · retrieved 2026-07-04
- CARBON TRUST 2021 no country taggedCarbon impact of video streamingThe Carbon Trust, with DIMPACT (convened by Carnstone Partners Ltd) — member companies supplied measured 2020 data5 rows · updates: one-off white paper (2020 underlying data; not periodically revised) · retrieved 2026-07-17
- URBAN CTA 2017 no country taggedUrban, Roth, Singh & Howes — Energy Consumption of Consumer Electronics in U.S. Homes in 2017 (Fraunhofer USA CSE, final report to the Consumer Technology Association)Fraunhofer USA Center for Sustainable Energy Systems4 rows · updates: periodic (prior editions 2010, 2013; no successor as of 2026-07) · retrieved 2026-07-17
- DIMPACT 2022 no country taggedDIMPACT — Estimating the Carbon Impacts of Serving Digital Media and Entertainment Products (Methodology Report v1.0)DIMPACT Initiative (Carnstone Partners)3 rows · updates: periodic methodology updates (v1.0 Oct 2022) · retrieved 2026-05-21
- A100 2026 no country taggedMore than Carbon: Cradle-to-Grave environmental impacts of GenAI training on the NVIDIA A100 GPUarXiv:2509.00093 (also Sustainable Computing: Informatics and Systems, Elsevier S019592552600199X)2 rows · updates: stable (single publication) · retrieved 2026-06-27
- TANNU NAIR 2022 no country taggedThe Dirty Secret of SSDs: Embodied Carbon (Tannu, Nair)Swamit Tannu, Prashant J. Nair — arXiv:2207.10793; ACM SIGENERGY Energy Informatics Review 3(3), Oct 20232 rows · updates: stable (v2 preprint 2023) · retrieved 2026-07-06
- DELL R740 2019 no country taggedLife Cycle Assessment / Product Carbon Footprint — Dell EMC PowerEdge R740Dell Technologies (LCA conducted by thinkstep / Sphera)1 row · updates: point-in-time product LCA (2019); not periodically refreshed · retrieved 2026-06-26
- KIRKEBY 2026 no country taggedEvaluating End-User Device Energy Models in Sustainability Reporting of Browser-Based Web Services (Kirkeby, Lagermann — Roskilde University)ACM SAC '26 — arXiv:2510.12566 v11 row · updates: stable (SAC'26 conference paper) · retrieved 2026-05-21
- NVIDIA H100 2023 no country taggedNVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPU — Product Carbon Footprint (SXM baseboard)NVIDIA Corporation1 row · updates: point-in-time product carbon footprint · retrieved 2026-06-27
- Estimating the Increase in Emissions caused by AI-augmente… no country taggedEstimating the Increase in Emissions caused by AI-augmented SearcharXiv:2407.16894 (v2)1 row · updates: stable (single publication) · retrieved 2026-07-03
- SWD MODEL (SWD_MODEL_V3) no country taggedSustainable Web Design Model — Estimating Digital Emissions (Version 3, legacy)Sustainable Web Design (with Wholegrain Digital, Mightybytes, The Green Web Foundation) · read the explainer1 row · updates: superseded by v4 (2024); retained for legacy comparison · retrieved 2026-07-04
- SEAGATE 2024 no country taggedEnterprise storage-drive life-cycle assessments (Seagate Exos HDD + Nytro SSD) — embodied carbon per TBSeagate Technology (product sustainability / LCA reports); corroborated by Western Digital FY2022 sustainability reporting1 row · updates: per-product LCA releases · retrieved 2026-07-06
- EU ENERGY no country taggedEU energy label declared on-mode power for televisions (market survey)Topten.eu (EU-supported independent product database), against EU Energy Labelling Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 and Regulation (EU) 2019/2013 declarations1 row · updates: continuous (market database; label scale rescaled 2021 under (EU) 2019/2013) · retrieved 2026-07-04
Rows: GET https://api.greencalculus.com/v1/factors?section=digital Digital table (no key needed to browse)
Within each activity, sources you may pass on come first, then the widest reach, then the most rows — the order this guide argues for, not a ranking of quality. “You may pass values on” means the publisher’s terms let you redistribute the values in your own product; “use and cite only” means they do not, and some of those terms also limit commercial computation, so read them before you build on one. Licence families are derived from the publisher’s wording; the wording governs, and each source’s is on the source registry.
The question every list skips
There are two things you might do with an emission factor, and licences treat them completely differently.
Implementing a dataset means using its values to compute a result — a footprint, a report, an invoice line. The number goes in, an answer comes out, the dataset never leaves your system.
Redistributing it means passing the values on: serving them through your API, exporting them to a customer’s spreadsheet, shipping them inside a product someone else installs. The dataset itself travels.
Most licences in this field permit the first and restrict the second, and most roundups collapse both into a single “free” badge. That collapse is what gets people into trouble, because the moment your tool exports a factor table or your API returns a value, you have crossed from one column to the other — and a licence that was fine on Monday is a problem on Tuesday.
Every entry below answers both questions separately. Where a publisher does not answer publicly, we say so rather than guess.
The landscape, with terms
| Source | Licence, as published | Compute with it? | Pass values on? |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK DEFRA / DESNZ factors 2026 | Open Government Licence v3.0 | Yes | Yes, with attribution |
| US EPA EF Hub, eGRID, USEEIO | US Government public domain (site-wide policy, not per dataset) | Yes | Yes |
| NREL USLCI (Federal LCA Commons) | CC0 1.0 plus a use agreement | Yes | Yes — but the full notice must travel with every copy |
| IPCC AR6 and 2006 Guidelines vols 3–5 | CC BY 4.0 | Yes | Yes, with attribution |
| IPCC Emission Factor Database (EFDB) | Site-wide IPCC copyright notice: personal, non-commercial use | Not commercially, absent written permission | No |
| GHG Protocol standards (most) | Site terms bar reproduction and distribution for any public or commercial purpose, except as the terms permit | Yes | No |
| ADEME Base Carbone (via data.gouv.fr) | Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0 | Yes | Yes, with attribution |
| ADEME AGRIBALYSE | Etalab 2.0 on the indicator results | Yes | Results yes; the background LCI beneath needs an ecoinvent licence |
| Ember electricity data | CC BY 4.0 — no NC, no share-alike | Yes | Yes, with attribution |
| Climate TRACE | CC BY 4.0, with twelve embedded external sources disclaimed | Yes | Yes for their own data; check the embedded sources |
| JRC EDGAR | European Commission reuse notice | Yes | Yes |
| JRC Environmental Footprint 3.1 | Sphera EULA — permitted use is PEF/OEF studies only | Only inside a formal PEF/OEF study | No |
| ecoinvent | Paid annual subscription, EULA v3 | Yes, under licence | No — needs a Developer/Reseller licence, and sub-licensees get impact results only |
| EXIOBASE | Dual licence; the free route is a customised non-commercial variant | Not by a for-profit entity on the free licence | No — republishing coefficients is excluded |
| IEA Emissions Factors | Paid, €995 single user; “Non-CC Material” terms | No — not for third-party footprints | No |
| Sphera Managed LCA Content (formerly GaBi) | Not published; terms are delivered inside the sales relationship | Unanswerable publicly | Unanswerable publicly |
| openLCA Nexus | No platform licence — every database carries its provider’s own EULA | Per database | Per database |
The IEA trap, and proof it spreads
If you read one section, read this one, because it demonstrates the whole thesis with a government as the victim.
The IEA publishes the standard international dataset of electricity emission factors by country. Its reports and figures are CC BY 4.0. Its datasets are not — they fall under the IEA’s Terms of Use for Non-CC Material, which define “Emissions Factors Material” as “the IEA’s Emissions Factors and Life Cycle Upstream Emissions Factors datasets, the IEA’s Emissions Factors Package and any other related IEA Material.” Two sentences in those terms end most commercial conversations:
“For the avoidance of doubt, it is not permitted to use Emissions Factors Material to carry out carbon footprint calculations for third parties.”
“Public use of Emissions Factors Material and/or public usage of any content relying in some manner on Emissions Factors Material is not permitted.”
Read the second one again. It does not merely restrict redistribution of the data; it restricts public use of any content relying in some manner on the data. That is a clause about your outputs, not just your inputs, and a carbon-accounting product is in the business of calculating footprints for third parties.
Now the proof that this propagates. The UK government’s conversion factors used to include overseas electricity factors. They do not any more, and the 2026 methodology report says why, in section 10.5:
“However, the overseas electricity factors have not been provided after the 2015 update due to a change in the licencing conditions for the underlying International Energy Association (IEA) dataset upon which they were based.”
The section that follows notes the IEA dataset was “previously identified as the best available consistent dataset” for the purpose, and that it “can be purchased from the IEA website.”
A national government, publishing under the Open Government Licence, could not keep providing a category of official reporting factors because the layer beneath them changed terms. If it can happen to DESNZ, the “free” aggregator you are evaluating is not immune — and the Open Government Licence itself carves out “third party rights the Information Provider is not authorised to license,” which is precisely the gap this fell through.
Ask any vendor what sits underneath their global electricity factors. If the answer is IEA-derived and they are calculating footprints for you, ask to see the licence that permits it.
Licences are per source, not per publisher
“Is publisher X open?” is an unanswerable question. In our registry, four publishers ship both redistributable and non-redistributable datasets, and the pattern repeats across the wider landscape.
The IPCC. AR6 and most of the 2006 Guidelines volumes are CC BY 4.0 and genuinely open — we redistribute them. But the Emission Factor Database, the most-cited emission factor library in the world, links its Copyright to the site-wide IPCC notice, which grants only that “you may freely download and copy the material contained on this website for your personal, non-commercial use, without any right to resell or redistribute it or to compile or create derivative works there from.” The IPCC provides a written-permission route for other uses. Separately, AR5 WG3 Annex III — the harmonised lifecycle electricity table half the industry quotes — is a fair-use citation rather than a redistributable dataset, and AR6 does not republish it. Same organisation, three different answers.
The GHG Protocol. The most cited authority in corporate carbon accounting has terms of use stating that you “may not modify, frame, reproduce, archive, sell, lease, rent, exchange, create derivative works from, publish by hard copy or electronic means… circulate to any third party… or otherwise use the Services or the GHG Protocol Content for any public or commercial purpose except as specifically permitted by these Terms.” Across the five of its documents we carry, four different licence positions apply: the Corporate Standard and the 2026 Land Sector and Removals Standard fall under those default terms; the ICT Sector Guidance is CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, non-commercial and share-alike; the 2011 Product Standard is attribution on non-commercial terms; and only the 2006 CHP allocation guide is freely redistributable.
Fairness demands the other half: the GHG Protocol has released two specific publications — Potential Emissions from Fossil Fuel Reserves and Estimating and Reporting Avoided Emissions — under CC BY 4.0. Which is the point exactly. One organisation, one terms page, and you still cannot answer “may I use their material?” without naming the document.
The JRC. EDGAR carries the European Commission reuse notice and is genuinely open, commercial use included. The Environmental Footprint 3.1 reference package, from the same institution, is gated by a Sphera end-user licence whose permitted use is conducting PEF and OEF studies in compliance with a recognised PEFCR or OEFSR — and which states you are not allowed to use the datasets for any other purpose, “including for commercial, non-commercial or educational purposes.” A general-purpose footprint calculator is outside that grant.
ADEME. Base Carbone via data.gouv.fr is Licence Ouverte, commercial reuse included. AGRIBALYSE publishes its indicator results under the same open terms and says plainly that users of the underlying data in LCA software need an ecoinvent licence. Open results sitting on a licensed foundation is a normal, honest architecture — and it means the answer depends on which layer you are touching.
Climate TRACE. Its own inventory is CC BY 4.0 and explicitly permits commercial use and redistribution. But its terms also note the dataset reproduces material from twelve named external sources — including commercial entity-identifier services — and disclaims responsibility for their terms, telling users it is “the sole responsibility of the user to review the terms and conditions for all the above sources.” “Climate TRACE is CC BY 4.0, ship it” is therefore not quite right.
openLCA Nexus is the pattern in its purest form: a marketplace with no platform-wide data licence, where ecoinvent datasets carry ecoinvent’s EULA, Agri-footprint carries Blonk’s, and PSILCA carries GreenDelta’s — three licensors, three sets of rules, one download button.
Classify the source, never the organisation. “We use IPCC data and IPCC is open” is not a licence position. “We use AR6 Table 7.15 under CC BY 4.0, with attribution” is.
“Free” that you cannot ship
Four clause types turn a free download into a commercial dead end.
Non-commercial clauses. These permit everything except the thing a business does, and no fee fixes them. EXIOBASE is the sharpest example of a database universally described as free and open: its current release is a dual licence whose free route is a customised non-commercial variant that names “contracted work, revenue-generating activities, and use by for-profit entities” as excluded. It also permits publishing derived results under any licence provided the publication does not include the original or derived coefficients — a redistribution ban stated as a publication rule. Eight sources in our registry carry NC terms.
Share-alike clauses. The sleeper. CC BY-SA lets you use and redistribute freely, but derivatives inherit the licence, and a factor table built from an SA source is arguably a derivative. Three sources in our registry are share-alike, and we treat them as viral over derived results rather than argue the edge. Worth checking specifically: Ember, for instance, is CC BY 4.0 with no share-alike, which is why it is safe for commercial products in a way several similar-looking datasets are not.
Purpose-limited grants. Less familiar and increasingly common: the licence permits use, but only for one named purpose. The JRC EF 3.1 package is the model — free to download, restricted to PEF and OEF studies. If your use is not that use, the price being zero is irrelevant.
No grant at all. The most common case is the quietest: no licence page, no terms file, no copyright notice, just a download button. Silence is not permission. Twenty-five sources in our registry fall here — the terms simply do not grant redistribution, so we do not take it.
A live deadline: ICE closes on 30 September 2026
The Inventory of Carbon and Energy has been the default embodied-carbon dataset in UK construction for over a decade. Its publisher now distributes ICE Database Educational V5.0 (June 2026) and states it “must not be used for commercial applications, including project calculations, carbon assessments, tools, software, reporting, or any internal business or consultancy activity,” adding that non-educational use of ICE Database data will no longer be permitted after 30 September 2026. Commercial users are directed to the paid IC+ product.
That is three weeks from publication. If ICE values are embedded in a tool, a template or a client deliverable, that is a live question with a date on it — read the publisher’s own terms rather than taking our summary for it. For our part, we retired ICE v3.0 when its commercial licence was withdrawn and moved to ÖKOBAUDAT; we still carry the genuinely open 2011 release of ICE v2.0, only for the handful of non-binder concrete constituents ÖKOBAUDAT does not cover. Three editions of one database, three different answers.
What moved in the last eighteen months
Databases are not stable objects, and the changes are rarely announced where users will see them.
- Two flagship US federal datasets have missed a release. eGRID2024 does not exist — the current edition remains eGRID2023 rev2 from mid-2025 — and the EPA GHG Emission Factors Hub still offers the January 2025 edition with no 2026 successor. Neither has an EPA statement explaining the delay. Unofficial successor editions have appeared from a private consortium off EPA’s domain; whatever their quality, they are not EPA data and should not be cited as such.
- ecoinvent moved from perpetual to annual subscription in April 2025, and launched its first API in June 2026, aimed at software vendors integrating its data. The API requires a paid licence and points at the general EULA.
- “GaBi” is not a current database name. It was rebranded Sphera Managed LCA Content in 2023 and is still miscited constantly. Its terms and pricing are not published at all — which, next to ecoinvent’s fully public EULA, is itself the finding.
- NREL was renamed the National Laboratory of the Rockies in December 2025. USLCI itself is unchanged, but citation strings naming NREL are now stale for anything after that date.
- JRC’s ELCD is deprecated, superseded by the Environmental Footprint reference package, and the EF 3.1 EULA’s grant window for PEF/OEF studies ran to 31 December 2025 with no successor terms we could find.
- The IEA’s Emissions Factors 2026 edition is due imminently, on the usual annual cycle and the usual terms.
What auditing every source found
Every source in our corpus carries a reviewed licence, a redistribution flag, and a written basis for that flag. The headline is the split:
of licence-reviewed emission factor sources cannot legally be passed on — 116 of 285
There are 167 distinct licence strings across those 285 sources, because publishers do not agree on wording and flattening them into three buckets loses the part that matters. And the 116 we cannot pass on fail for four different reasons, counted at the 8 September 2026 review, which matter because only one of them is about money:
The 25 in the second bar are the quiet ones: no licence page, no terms file, no copyright notice, just a download button. They are not refusals — they are silences, and we read a silence as “no”.
The full table, filterable by licence and redistribution status, is published in the open and ruled source by source on Which emission factor datasets can I legally redistribute in a product?, and the same terms travel inside every API response — including the sources we cannot redistribute, which is the half most registries never show.
The same rubric, applied to us
A landscape page that scores everyone else and exempts its author is marketing. So, in the same columns — including the two that do not flatter us.
Six keyless routes
Corpus browse and search, release status, the change feed, the coverage matrix, the roadmap, and the absence register — no key, no account, full values rather than redacted previews. Each response carries a licences block naming the licence, redistribution status and basis of every source behind the rows, so the terms travel with the data.
1,000 calls a month
No cost, and commercial use inside your own application is permitted — we have no non-commercial clause at any tier. Attribution is required. The calculation endpoints run on every tier, free included.
The bulk feed is partial
It carries the 169 redistributable sources, not all 285. The remaining 116 are visible, citable and usable in calculations but not downloadable in bulk, because we do not have that right to give. That is a real limitation, imposed by the same upstream terms this page is about.
A review is a snapshot
Licences change without notice — ICE and the IEA both prove it. Every source row carries the date we last read its terms so you can judge how stale a call is, and the two most pointed claims on this page were re-read against the publisher’s own page before publication.
Checking any database yourself, in ten minutes
Five questions, in this order. They resolve most cases before you need a lawyer.
Find the licence page, not the download page
If there isn’t one, that is your answer. Never infer permission from a public download button — a quarter of the restricted sources in our registry restrict by silence rather than by clause.
Check for NC, SA and purpose limits
Non-commercial rules out paid products entirely, at any volume. Share-alike is survivable but infectious. A purpose limit is the one people miss, because the licence reads as permissive until you notice it names a single use.
Ask the two questions separately
May I compute with this? May I pass the values on? Write down both answers. If the terms address only one, assume the other is not granted.
Ask what is underneath
An aggregator’s badge does not launder its sources’ terms. This is exactly what removed the UK’s overseas electricity factors, and it is invisible unless you ask.
Check the edition, not the database
Version 3 and version 5 of the same product can differ, and a licence can be narrowed on a schedule nobody told you about. ICE has three editions with three different answers.
For the same five questions applied to APIs rather than datasets — including which ones are genuinely free — see the companion guide on free carbon APIs. For the free sources ranked by what each one covers, What are the best free sources of greenhouse gas emission factors?; for what you may ship inside a product, Download emission factors for commercial use: which sources?.
Frequently asked questions
No. The NC clause attaches to the nature of the use, not to whether a specific user paid. A commercial product’s free tier is part of a commercial offering. This is the most common misreading of NC terms in this field, and it survives longest because nobody enforces it early.
An individual number generally is not. A structured compilation of thousands of them, with methodology and selection judgement behind it, generally is — and database rights in the UK and EU protect the compilation separately from copyright. In practice the “it’s just a fact” argument does not help you, because what you want is the table, and the table is the protected part.
Free is a price; open is a permission. The IPCC’s Emission Factor Database costs nothing and is not open. The JRC’s EF 3.1 package costs nothing and is restricted to one purpose. Meanwhile ecoinvent is expensive and publishes its full end-user licence, so you can at least know exactly what you are buying — which is more than can be said for some free downloads.
Because a citation is not a copy. We can look a value up, use it in a calculation, and tell you exactly where it came from, without handing you the dataset. Excluding those sources would make the corpus narrower and the answers worse; pretending they were redistributable would make it wrong. Showing the boundary is the honest third option.
Annually, and whenever a licence materially moves, with a note of what changed. Publishers do not announce licence changes in any coordinated way — we found the ICE withdrawal during a routine re-read of terms, not from a notification — so this page is as current as its last review date, shown at the top.
For open government factors served by API with their source references, GreenCalculus; for spend-based factors, EXIOBASE under share-alike; for life-cycle data, ecoinvent under a paid licence, usually through a vendor. Whatever you pick, read the licence before the row count: nearly half of the sources reviewed here cannot be redistributed.