Difference in CO2 between CCF and Cloud native tool

[Vladislav Shlager]

Hello CCF team,

I have set up CCF on local machine and connect it to GCP. Could you answer on next questions:

Q1. Why CO2 value in CCF does not match with GCP native tool?

1.1. CCF uses data in BigQuery for April 2024 which is 20586 mtCO2.

1.2. GCP native tools shows value 24.21 tCO2e (Market-based emissions) and 44.36 tCO2e (Location-based emissions) for the same month.

Q2. Which emissions type (location-based or market based) we should use to compare values between CCF and GCP Cloud native tool?

Thank you in advance,

Vladislav Shlager

[Cloud Carbon Footprint]

Hi Vladislav,

CCF estimations will always be inherently different than the Cloud Native Tools estimations. There are a number of reasons why, including differing methodologies, the fact the CCF has to use average constants for estimations vs the clouds having access to actual energy usage data.

Our goal was to get the estimations into a similar order of magnitude but never to get them exactly the same. We think the best way to use CCF is to understand data trends and usage details rather than relying on it firmly for emissions reporting. Trying to constantly compare the results is not a recommended approach. We will plan to put out a FAQ page on a website to help address these sort of questions moving forward.

Thanks,

CCF Team