Carbon dioxide CO₂
Definition
CO₂ is the chemical formula for carbon dioxide, it is one part carbon, two parts oxygen.
Importance
CO₂ is a greenhouse gas and its emissions have a global warming effect. However, CO₂ is also necessary in the photosynthesis process in plants, which produces oxygen.
Climate change
To track its effect on climate change, soil organic carbon storage can be expressed as CO₂ storage. For this, a factor 44 (molar mass CO₂) / 12 (molar mass C) = 3.67 is used. This means one tonne of stored soil organic carbon corresponds to 3.67 tonnes of captured CO₂.
| molar mass CO₂ | molar mass C | captured CO₂ (44/12) T | stored soil organic carbon T |
| 44 | 12 | 3.67 | 1 |
