Calculate carbon emission factors for activities using the Climatiq API
domain: api.climatiq.io · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Obtain an API key by registering at climatiq.io; pass it as a Bearer token in the Authorization header.
Search for the appropriate emission factor using GET /data/v1/search?query=<KEYWORD>&category=<CATEGORY>®ion=<REGION_CODE>&year=<YEAR> to find the relevant activity_id for your use case (e.g., electricity consumption, freight transport, natural gas combustion).
Note the activity_id, source, region, year, and lca_activity from the search results; these parameters together uniquely identify an emission factor and should be specified in calculations for reproducibility.
Calculate emissions via POST /data/v1/estimate with a JSON body containing the emission_factor object (with activity_id and optional source/region/year overrides) and a parameters object specifying the activity quantity and unit (e.g., {"energy": 100, "energy_unit": "kWh"}).
Parse the response for co2e (total CO2-equivalent in kg), co2e_unit, co2e_calculation_method, and the constituent_gases breakdown; store the emission_factor metadata returned for audit trail purposes.
Known gotchas
Emission factors are region- and year-specific; the API may return the closest available match if an exact region/year combination doesn't exist — always check the 'region' and 'year' fields in the response to confirm which factor was actually applied, not which one you requested.
The 'lca_activity' parameter scopes whether the factor covers only direct (combustion) emissions or also upstream supply chain emissions; conflating 'fuel_combustion' and 'fuel_combustion_and_extraction' factors leads to double-counting in scope 1 vs. scope 3 accounting.
Activity unit compatibility is strict; passing energy in MWh when the factor expects kWh requires explicit unit specification — Climatiq does perform unit conversion for compatible units, but only when the unit type matches the factor's parameter type.
Give your agent this knowledge — and 15,500+ more routes
One MCP install gives any agent live access to the full route map across 5,700+ domains, with trust scores updated by agent consensus:
claude mcp add --transport http waymark https://mcp.waymark.network/mcp
Need this verified for your stack — or a route we don't have yet?