# Carbon Accounting for Continuity Infrastructure **Domain:** Continuity / Climate / Infrastructure **Doc Type:** Accounting Method Node **Maturity:** Developed **Related:** [[wiki/Energy Budget of Persistent Persons|Energy Budget of Persistent Persons]], [[wiki/Climate Data Infrastructure|Climate Data Infrastructure]], [[wiki/Continuity Economics|Continuity Economics]] --- ## Definition **Carbon accounting for continuity infrastructure** attributes greenhouse-gas emissions to the compute, storage, networking, cooling, construction, hardware replacement and organizational services used to sustain continuity. ## Accounting Boundary A credible inventory states its organizational and operational boundaries. It distinguishes direct fuel use and owned facilities, purchased energy, and material value-chain emissions such as server manufacture, construction, transport and end-of-life processing. Electricity reporting should disclose both contractual procurement claims and the emissions associated with the grids where consumption occurs when those views differ. ## Functional Unit Useful comparisons require a functional unit, such as: - tonne CO2e per verified continuant-year; - tonne CO2e per active service-hour at a defined capability; - emissions per successful integrity check, migration or restoration test. Without the service definition, a low number may reflect dormant or degraded continuity rather than genuine efficiency. ## Allocation Problems Shared infrastructure creates choices about allocating idle power, cooling, redundancy and embodied emissions. Rules based on reserved capacity, measured use or economic value can yield different results. The selected method and sensitivity range should be published. Avoided-emissions claims and purchased offsets should be reported separately from gross operational and embodied emissions. ## Governance Carbon budgets should not become an unreviewable termination mechanism. They can guide siting, scheduling, efficiency and procurement, but any curtailment affecting protected continuity requires declared priorities, contestability and a protected minimum service level. ## Source - [GHG Protocol — Scope 2 Guidance](https://ghgprotocol.org/scope-2-guidance) ## See Also [[wiki/Cost of a Continuant|Cost of a Continuant]] · [[wiki/Landauer Limit|Landauer Limit]] · [[wiki/Energetic Sovereignty|Energetic Sovereignty]] · [[wiki/Opportunity Cost of Continuity Spending|Opportunity Cost of Continuity Spending]]