Draft for a new RFC to expose carbon emissions in HTTP responses

[bertysentry]

Help!

I proposed a draft of an RFC with the HTTP group of the IETF, that defines a new HTTP response header to provide the amount of CO2 (scope 2) emitted for the processing of that HTTP request. This header would be optional. I just want to make sure everybody uses the same way to communicate this information.

This would help organizations, applications, and clients to assess their scope 3 emissions when they leverage Web services:

• A user visiting a Web site, doing a Google search, a ChatGPT conversation.
• An application leveraging 3rd-party REST APIs.
• An infrastructure relying on SaaS platforms, online S3 storage, etc.

Unfortunately, I'm getting a lot of pushback from the HTTP working group. My draft can definitely be improved, and I'd like to keep the discussion going. Most importantly, some of the people at the HTTP working of the IETF requested experts to chime in and provide guidance (why would this new HTTP header would be beneficial, and what's the best way to achieve its goal).

The discussion is happening in a specific issue on the HTTP group's GitHub: httpwg/admin#52.

Anyone who could answer some of the questions on this thread is welcome! I need some backup here, and comments and suggestions from the GSF to get this RFC adopted.

Thank you!

@NAMRATA-WOKE @seanmcilroy29 @atg-abhishek @Henry-WattTime