GHG Protocol updates scope 2 emissions framework

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reporting framework provider GHG Protocol has announced the release of consultations on proposed changes to its guidance and accounting methods for reporting emissions from companies’ purchased electricity and electricity sector actions. This initiative is part of efforts to update its suite of corporate standards and guidance.

The new consultations address updates to the GHG Protocol’s Scope 2 Guidance, initially published in 2015, and propose revisions to consequential accounting methods for estimating avoided emissions from electricity sector actions.

Established in 1997 by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), GHG Protocol develops comprehensive global standardised frameworks for measuring and managing GHG emissions across private and public sector operations, value chains, and mitigation actions. Its standards are integrated into major global sustainability reporting frameworks, including the IFRS Foundation’s ISSB standards and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) underpinning the CSRD regulation.

Scope 2 emissions often represent a substantial portion of a company’s GHG emissions. According to GHG Protocol, nearly 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions originate from energy generation, with half of that energy consumed by industrial or commercial entities. Efforts to address Scope 2 emissions typically include energy conservation, efficiency upgrades, and transitioning to low-carbon electricity.

The Scope 2 Guidance standardises how companies measure emissions from purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heat, and cooling. The updates aim to improve accuracy, maintain consistency in GHG reporting methods, and align with evolving energy production and delivery landscapes.

Key aspects of the proposed update include new requirements for emissions from energy contracts and instruments, such as renewable energy credits, in GHG inventories. It introduces “Scope 2 Quality Criteria” that all contractual instruments must meet to be a reliable data source for the scope 2 market-based method, along with recommendations for transparently disclosing information about energy purchases.

A central feature of the new proposal is a new hourly matching and deliverability requirement for market-based reporting. This aims to align emissions claims more closely with the time and place electricity is consumed, reducing double counting and ensuring that reported clean energy purchases more accurately reflect the physical realities of the power grid.

In addition to the Scope 2 guidance, GHG Protocol is conducting a consultation on consequential accounting methods, which estimate the system-wide impacts of actions such as clean energy procurement or investment beyond an organisation’s operational boundaries. According to GHG Protocol, maintaining separate reporting for inventory emissions and system-wide impacts would help preserve the integrity and comparability of corporate inventories, ensuring consistent reported emissions across organisations over time.

Alexander Bassen, Chair of Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Independent Standards Board, stated, “A decade after publishing the Scope 2 standard, an update is both timely and necessary. This revision is an opportunity to make improvements based on how the standard has been applied in practice and how power systems have become cleaner, more complex, and more interconnected than ever before.”

The consultations will remain open until 19 December. [Access the GHG Protocol consultations](https://ghgprotocol.org/ghg-protocol-public-consultations).