# Does splitting my lubricant use into oil and grease change the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) figure for my workshop?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/lubricant-oil-and-grease-ipcc-two-factors

Yes, slightly. The IPCC Tier 2 method uses an oxidised during use factor of 0.2 for oil and 0.05 for grease. A 90 to 10 mix works out to 0.185, which the Guidelines round to the single Tier 1 figure of 0.2. A grease-heavy plant overstates its figure by using 0.2 for all of it.

## The two factors in the Guidelines

Volume 3 Chapter 5, Table 5.2, gives a default oxidised during use (ODU) factor of 0.2 for lubricating oil (motor and industrial oils) and 0.05 for grease. The default split of lubricants in the table is 90 percent oil and 10 percent grease, and the default for total lubricants is 0.2, which the table footnote says assumes that split and is "rounded to one significant digit".

## The rounding

0.9 x 0.2 + 0.1 x 0.05 = 0.18 + 0.005 = 0.185. That is our arithmetic; the Guidelines print the rounded 0.2. Using 0.2 on a 90 to 10 mix is therefore about 8 percent high (0.2 / 0.185 = 1.08). The Guidelines also say the default ODU factor is four times smaller for greases than for oils, so a higher tier "will primarily capture the impact of using actual fractions of oils and greases".

## When the split matters

Only when grease is a large share of what you buy. By default both tiers use the same carbon content, 20.0 kilograms of carbon per gigajoule (GJ), and the same net calorific value for lubricants, 40.2 GJ per tonne; the Guidelines allow a country-specific carbon content in either tier. Tier 2 needs the quantities of oil and grease known separately, so put them on separate lines in your stock register or purchase sheet.

The ODU factors themselves are described as very uncertain, with a default uncertainty of 50 percent. A plant with a 90 to 10 mix gains almost nothing from splitting; a bearing shop with half its lubricant as grease gains a lot.

## What stays out

- Oil mixed into two-stroke engine fuel and used oil afterwards are left out of this calculation; our lubricants page explains where each one goes.

## A bearing shop buying 1 tonne of oil and 1 tonne of grease

- Oil per tonne: 40.2 x 20.0 x 0.2 x 44 / 12 = 589.6 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2)
- Grease per tonne: 40.2 x 20.0 x 0.05 x 44 / 12 = 147.4 kilograms of CO2
- Tier 2 total: 589.6 + 147.4 = 737.0 kilograms of CO2
- Tier 1 on the same 2 tonnes: 2 x 589.6 = 1,179.2 kilograms of CO2
- Tier 1 is 1,179.2 / 737.0 = 1.6 times the Tier 2 figure

The 1 tonne of each is an example. Volumes bought in litres need the density from the product data sheet before converting to tonnes.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into dated records. Lubricant and grease purchases are not part of that, so keep oil and grease tonnes in your own sheet and add the result to your inventory.

- [Do lubricating oils count in Scope 1?](https://senseible.earth/answers/do-lubricants-count-in-scope-1)
- [Diesel or kerosene used as a cleaning solvent](https://senseible.earth/answers/diesel-or-kerosene-as-cleaning-solvent)
- [Free calculators](https://senseible.earth/calculators)

Sources: [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 3 Chapter 5 (Section 5.2, Table 5.2)](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/pdf/3_Volume3/V3_5_Ch5_Non_Energy_Products.pdf), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Chapter 1 (Tables 1.2 and 1.3)](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/pdf/2_Volume2/V2_1_Ch1_Introduction.pdf)

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Based on the 2006 Guidelines defaults. The 0.185 weighting and the 1.6 times comparison are our arithmetic from the printed factors; the oil factor and per tonne figure match our lubricants page.