Previous Year Question
The ‘Common Carbon Metric’, supported by UNEP, has been developed for
assessing the carbon footprint of building operations around the world
enabling commercial farming entities around the world to enter carbon emission trading
enabling governments to assess the overall carbon footprint caused by their countries
assessing the overall carbon footprint caused by the use of fossil fuels by the world in a unit time
Correct Answer: A
Detailed Solution
The Common Carbon Metric has been developed to assess energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions associated with building operations.
It was supported by the United Nations Environment Programme’s ‘Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative’.
Its objective is to provide a consistent methodology for calculating emissions from building operations across different countries and regions.
Building operations include energy used for lighting, heating, cooling, ventilation and other equipment.
The production and use of this energy can cause direct or indirect greenhouse-gas emissions.
The Common Carbon Metric helps convert energy-use data into carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions.
Results can be expressed with reference to the floor area of a building and a specified period, enabling comparison between different buildings.
It provides a common basis for the measurement, reporting and verification of emissions from buildings.
It helps develop standardized benchmarks for the energy efficiency of buildings and identify areas where improvement is possible.
It is primarily concerned with the operational phase of buildings; its main purpose is not to enable farming entities to enter carbon trading. Therefore, option (b) is not correct.
It is not a tool for calculating the total carbon footprint of all economic sectors of a country. Therefore, option (c) is not correct.
It is also not a global measure for assessing all emissions caused by fossil fuels during a unit of time. Therefore, option (d) is not correct.