Scope 1, 2 and 3, made simple
Three words that describe where your emissions come from. Tap the ? buttons for short explanations.
Scope 1
What you burn or leak yourself: fuel in vehicles and generators, gas for cooking, refrigerant leaks.
- Diesel
- Petrol
- LPG (cooking or heating gas)
- Natural gas
- Refrigerant top-ups
Scope 2
The energy you buy: electricity and district cooling. The smoke is at the power station, the cause is your use.
- Purchased electricity
- District cooling
Scope 3
Everything else you pay for but do not control: water, waste, flights, commuting, purchases.
- Water supply
- Waste
- Business flights
- Employee commuting
- Purchased goods and services
Every organisation that uses fuel or buys electricity releases greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide. Reporting means counting how much you used, converting it into one comparable number, and sending it to the regulator. You do not need technical training. You need your bills.
The formula
Activity amount is what your bill shows: litres of diesel, kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity. The emission factor says how many kilograms of CO2e one unit releases. CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) turns every gas into the same unit, so methane or refrigerant gases can be added to carbon dioxide.
Scope 1: what you burn or leak yourself
Direct emissions from sources your company owns or controls.
- Diesel or petrol in company vehicles and generators.
- Gas for cooking, boilers or heaters (LPG, natural gas).
- Refrigerant gas that leaks from air conditioners and chillers. These gases warm the planet far more than carbon dioxide, so even small top-ups count.
Scope 2: the energy you buy
Indirect emissions from the electricity, steam, heating or cooling you buy. The emissions happen at the power station or cooling plant, but they are caused by your use.
- Electricity from DEWA, SEWA, EWEC and the other utilities.
- District cooling (chilled water) from providers such as Empower or Tabreed.
- Location-based method: uses the average grid factor for where you are. Market-based method: uses your supplier or certificate details. The location-based method is the usual starting point.
Scope 3: everything else in your value chain
Indirect emissions from activities you pay for but do not control. There are 15 official categories. DecarbOS covers the ones most small and mid-size UAE companies can measure from records they already hold.
- Water supply you buy.
- Waste your contractor collects and treats.
- Business flights.
- Employees travelling to work.
- Purchased goods and services, estimated from how much you spent.
Who does the calculation?
The MOCCAE reporting tool asks for your activity data (litres, kWh) and calculates the official emissions itself. DecarbOS gathers and checks that data from your bills and gives it to you in the same order as the tool, so you can type each number across. Where a verified emission factor is available we also show an indicative total so you can sense-check the result.
