The social cost of carbon is a method of calculating the impacts of additional carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions, including non-market impacts and human health. Assigning a cost per ton of CO2 emitted aids decision-makers in evaluating whether particular actions designed to reduce climate change are appropriate and justified.

For example, if the cost of carbon is set at 50 EUR per ton, and the emissions of a project design can be reduced by 1000 tons by using different materials or processes, then the investment of different materials or processes up to the cost of 50,000 EUR could be justified as making economic sense, while anything over that may lead to other options outside of materials and processes being pursued in order to reduce emissions.

The social cost of carbon is set at 50 EUR by default in your Company Account. Your company account manager can adjust this value by navigating to your company page:

The price and unit of currency at which your company sets its social cost of carbon can then be adjusted on the General Information tab:

You can find the estimated social cost of carbon for your design at the top of its results page for most tools.

Further breakdowns of the social cost of carbon per life cycle stage can be found in our 'Life Cycle Carbon - Global' and 'Life Cycle Carbon - North America' tools.