EXIOBASE overview

EXIOBASE is one of the most widely used databases for spend-based emission factors. It is an Environmentally Extended Multi-Regional Input-Output (EE-MRIO) database that links economic activity across industries and countries to greenhouse gas emissions. If you are calculating scope 3.1 (purchased goods and services) or scope 3.2 (capital goods) emissions using expenditure data, EXIOBASE is likely the source you will use.

We offer EXIOBASE data through our Data Studio, API, Excel add-in, and Google Sheets extension.

Overview of EXIOBASE

EXIOBASE was originally developed through a series of EU-funded research projects and is maintained by an international consortium of research institutions. It provides a time series of environmentally extended multi-regional input-output tables covering 44 countries (28 EU member states plus 16 major economies), which together represent approximately 95% of global GDP, and five aggregated “Rest of World” regions that capture the remainder of the global economy.

The database uses a classification of 149 industries and 183 product categories, making it one of the most granular MRIO databases available. All values are expressed in basic prices (million EUR) and cover a time period from 1995 onwards. At Climatiq we only cover years 2019 as well as 2022 and onwards.

Versions of EXIOBASE

EXIOBASE is available in our database in several versions:

Both v3.10 and v3.11 provide Industry and Product datasets separately (more on this distinction below).

The free version (v3.8.2) is a solid choice for screening-level assessments and remains valid for GHG accounting, but it starts to be old. While our inflation adjustments keep financial inputs accurate, the underlying carbon intensity data is nearly 7 years old and fails to capture structural changes in the economy, such as significant grid decarbonization and supply chain shifts that took place due to COVID, or other significant events in world politics. The paid versions (v3.10+) offer more recent base years, improved energy accounts, and methodological enhancements that result in more accurate calculations, particularly for recent reporting years.

Paid versions: Basic & Premium

EXIOBASE 3.11+ is available via Climatiq in two tiers:

EXIOBASE 3.11+ Basic includes

• product-level spend-based factors for purchased goods and services emissions for 183 products across 44 countries and 5 larger regions
• Latest factors based on a 2023 base year
• Breakdown into Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions

This is the right choice if your primary use case is scope 3.1 (purchased goods and services) or scope 3.2 (capital goods) reporting.

EXIOBASE 3.11+ Premium includes

• everything in Basic
• industry-level factors for investment and financed emissions, i.e. 183 products and 149 industries across the same 44 countries and 5 larger regions
• includes a constituent gas breakdown (CO2, CH4, N2O) per factor.

Choose this tier if you need industry factors for PCAF-compliant financed emissions calculations or if you require gas-level granularity for your reporting.

For access to the paid EXIOBASE versions, contact our sales team.

Methodology

The EEIO model

EXIOBASE is built on the principles of Environmentally Extended Input-Output (EEIO) analysis. An Input-Output (IO) model describes the flow of goods and services between all sectors of an economy: how much each industry buys from and sells to every other industry. The “environmentally extended” part adds a layer of environmental data on top of this economic structure, linking the monetary flows to greenhouse gas emissions, resource use, and other environmental pressures.

In practice, this means that for every euro spent in a given sector and region, the model captures not just the direct emissions from that sector, but also all the upstream emissions embedded in its supply chain. This makes EEIO-based emission factors particularly comprehensive for scope 3 estimates.

Not every product or industry has an emission factor for every region. The model is built from national supply-use tables and trade statistics, and where sufficient economic data is not available for a given country or sector, the corresponding factor simply does not exist. This is most common for smaller economies or niche product categories with limited trade data. When you encounter a gap, use the closest available proxy, either a broader regional aggregate or a similar product category in the same region, and document it as a data limitation.

Sector-based emissions

EXIOBASE emission factors represent the average emissions intensity of an entire economic sector. When you apply an EXIOBASE factor for “rubber and plastic products” in Germany, the result reflects the average carbon intensity of that sector in Germany, not a specific product or supplier.

This is an important distinction: spend-based factors cannot differentiate between a high-efficiency producer and a low-efficiency one, or between a product made from recycled materials and one made from virgin inputs. The result is always a sector average.

Supply chain coverage

One of the key strengths of EEIO models is full upstream supply chain coverage. The emission factors capture all tiers of the supply chain by default, from raw material extraction through every intermediate processing step to the final product. This is because the input-output model mathematically traces all inter-industry dependencies.

This means that when you use an EXIOBASE factor, upstream emissions are already included. You do not need to separately estimate supplier or sub-supplier emissions, as you sometimes need to with activity-based LCA factors that may only cover a specific lifecycle stage.

Region definition

EXIOBASE covers 44 individual countries and five aggregated Rest of World (RoW) regions:

• 28 EU member states (individually modeled)
• 16 major trading partners (US, China, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, India, Russia, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, Turkey, Indonesia, Norway, Switzerland, and South Africa)
• 5 RoW regions (Rest of Asia & Pacific, Rest of Africa, Rest of Americas, Rest of Europe, Rest of Middle East)

The region should reflect the region where your supplier is based. If your supplier is in a country that is individually modeled, you can use a country-specific emission factor. If the supplier is in a country within one of the RoW aggregations (e.g. a supplier in Thailand falls under “Rest of Asia & Pacific”), the factor will reflect an average across all countries in that group. This reduces accuracy for countries that are only represented through RoW aggregations. If you don’t know where your supplier is based or you don’t know the supplier, you can use the market-average factors.

When the supplier region is unknown, use the emission factor for the region where the product was purchased. This is less accurate, but acceptable as a fallback.

Industry vs. product factors

EXIOBASE classifies the economy into 163 industries and 200 product categories of which it provides emission factors for 149 industries and 183 products. The data source provides two types of emission factors:

Industry factors represent the emissions intensity of an industry as a whole, including all products that industry produces. For example, the “chemical industry” factor captures the average emissions across all chemical products produced by that industry.

Product factors represent the emissions intensity of a specific product category, regardless of which industry produced it. For example, “basic chemicals” as a product may be produced by multiple industries, and the product factor reflects the weighted average across all of them.

In practice: use product factors for purchased goods and services (scope 3.1), where you know what you bought. Use industry factors for investments and financed emissions (e.g. PCAF methodology), where you know which industry you are exposed to.

Basic vs. purchaser prices

This is one of the most important technical details to get right when using EXIOBASE.

Basic price is the cost set by the producer for a product or service, without additional fees like taxes, delivery costs, or trade margins. This is the price convention that EXIOBASE emission factors are built on.

Purchaser price is the total amount you actually pay for a product. It combines the basic price with trade margins (wholesale and retail markups), transport margins (shipping and logistics), and tax margins (non-deductible VAT, duties, subsidies). The purchaser price is currently not exposed in our database, but it is accessible as part of the Premium package.

Since most organizations track what they paid (purchaser price), not the factory-gate cost (basic price), you need to convert from purchaser price to basic price before applying EXIOBASE emission factors. If you apply a factor directly to your purchaser price, you will overestimate your emissions, sometimes significantly.

The conversion requires stripping out trade, transport, and tax margins. These vary by region and product category.

Emission factor types

Spend-based emission factors from EXIOBASE allocate impacts along the supply chain based on monetary flows. The guiding question when deciding which factor to use is: where does the money come from and where does it go?

The EXIOBASE datasource includes four types of emission factors:

Standard emission factors are the most commonly used spend-based emission factors. Use them when the location of the producer or service provider is known, regardless of where the product is consumed. These offer the highest accuracy.

Standard Regional emission factors (not included in Climatiq Database) are regional averages of the Standard factors. Use them when the specific country of the producer is unknown but the broader region is known, or when products and services come from a combination of locations within a region.

Market-average emission factors are country-specific averages that account for both domestic production and imports, weighted by market share. Use them when you know where the product was consumed but not where it was produced. For example, if you buy textiles in France but do not know whether they were manufactured domestically or imported, the French market-average factor reflects the actual supply mix in the French market.

Market-average Regional emission factors are regional averages of the market-average factors. Use them when the specific country of consumption is not known, only the broader region. This is the least precise option.

Advantages of EXIOBASE

• Broadest spend-based coverage available: 44 countries, 183 product sectors, full upstream supply chain included. Represents approximately 95% of global GDP.
• Accepted for GHG reporting: EXIOBASE is compliant with the GHG Protocol and accepted by auditors for scope 3 spend-based reporting. Recommended by the GHG Protocol and PCAF.
• Full supply chain included: Upstream emissions across all tiers are captured in the model, so you do not need to estimate supplier-level contributions separately.
• Comprehensive sector classification: 183 product categories and 149 industries provide a level of detail that most other MRIO models do not match.
• Available at scale through Climatiq: Use EXIOBASE through our different APIs, Excel add-in, Google Sheets extension, or Data Studio. We support inflation through our APIs.

Limitations of EXIOBASE

• Sector averages only: Factors represent the average emissions intensity of an entire sector and cannot capture supplier-specific differences, production methods, or efficiency improvements.
• Regional aggregation for some countries: Countries not individually modeled are grouped into five RoW regions. Emission factors for these regions are less precise.
• Pricing convention complexity: Factors are in basic prices (EUR). Using purchaser prices without converting will overestimate emissions. Our Procurement endpoint handles this, but it is a common source of error when using EXIOBASE manually.
• Time lag: The underlying economic data is typically a few years behind. v3.8.2 uses observed data up to 2019; v3.11 extends to 2023. Keep in mind that inflation adjustment is required when your spend is from a more recent or different year from the selected EF.
• Spend is an imperfect proxy for emissions: A price change (discount, currency fluctuation, inflation) changes the calculated footprint without any real-world emission change. This is inherent to all spend-based approaches, not just EXIOBASE.
• Not suitable for scope 1 or 2: EXIOBASE factors are designed for scope 3.1 and 3.2 only. Do not use them for direct fuel combustion or electricity consumption.

Best practices

Choose product factors for scope 3.1 and scope 3.2, industry factors for financed emissions: Match the factor type to your use case, product factors when you know what was purchased, industry factors when you know which sector you are exposed to.

Exclude scope 1 and 2 items from your spend data: Fuel, electricity, and transport costs should be calculated with activity-based factors under scope 1, 2, or other scope 3 categories. Including them in a spend-based scope 3.1 calculation leads to double-counting.

Use the most recent version available: If you have access to v3.11, use it. It includes built-in inflation correction and purchaser-price coefficients that simplify calculations. If you are using v3.8.2, you will need to adjust for inflation and margins.

Do not mix EXIOBASE with other EEIO models in the same scope 3.1 assessment: EXIOBASE, CEDA, and EPA/USEEIO use different methodologies, sector classifications, currencies, and pricing conventions. Mixing them in one calculation produces inconsistent results. Pick one and apply it consistently.

Adjust for inflation when using older versions: If your spend data is from 2025 but your emission factor is based on 2019 prices, you need to deflate your expenditure to the factor’s base year. Use sector-specific price indices where available.

Document your methodology: Record which EXIOBASE version, factor type (industry vs. product), and region you used, along with any inflation or margin adjustments. This is essential for audit readiness and year-on-year comparability.

For step-by-step calculation guidance, see our spend-based calculation guide. For the science behind spend-based factors, see The Science Behind Spend-Based Emission Factors.

You can directly browse EXIOBASE emission factors in the Data Studio.