A key goal of GHG Protocol’s update process for its corporate suite of standards is to align with major disclosure initiatives under development. In the past two years there have been significant developments in emerging climate disclosure mandates around the world. This new resource provides an overview of four climate-related disclosure rules that integrate GHG Protocol standards and guidance.

In 1998, WRI and WBCSD formed a partnership to develop the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol Corporate Standard, published in 2001 and revised in 2004, and the GHG Protocol for Project Accounting (Project Protocol), published in 2005. These standards provide two methods to account for emissions, respectively: entity-level GHG inventory accounting, which describes how to quantify and allocate an organization’s share of emissions to the atmosphere, and project-based GHG accounting, which describes how to evaluate emissions effects of a project relative to a counterfactual baseline scenario without the project.  

Status Update

June 1, 2023

GHG Protocol’s Land Sector and Removals Guidance builds on the Corporate Standard and Scope 3 Standard, explaining how companies should account for and report GHG emissions and removals from agricultural and forest management practices, land use change, bioenergy, carbon dioxide removal technologies, and related activities in GHG inventories. 

The Accountability Framework Initiative (AFI), in partnership with Greenhouse Gas Protocol and the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), recently released new guidance on how companies can align key land sector targets, accounting and disclosures. 

The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, developed by World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), sets the global standard for how to measure, manage, and report greenhouse gas emissions; these standards are used by thousands of companies to become more efficient, resilient, and prosperous organizations. Hundreds of industry professionals have learned greenhouse gas accounting from WRI experts through in-person and webinar trainings. Now, the same expert instruction is available to you on a low-cost and convenient e-learning platform. Online courses have been developed for the following GHG Protocol standards:

Cold-water laundry detergents, fuel-saving tires, energy-efficient ball bearings, emissions-saving data centers. Corporations are increasingly claiming that their goods and services reduce emissions. But there is a big problem: These avoided emissions claims are often unverifiable or inaccurate.

This week, the Smart Freight Center released the GLEC Framework, a guide for shippers, carriers and logistics service providers on how to report emissions from logistics operations. It is meant to be used in conjunction with the Corporate Standard, and it has earned the “Built on GHG Protocol” mark for its compliance with GHG Protocol’s requirements.

Fossil fuel companies hold vast oil, gas and coal reserves that help determine their market value. These reserves are also the basis to understanding the potential climate risks of burning these fuels. Yet not a single fossil fuel company in the world discloses potential emissions from their reserves – and that is a big problem.

Banks are connected to every part of the economy through their investing and lending activities. That means they play a crucial role in financing the transition to a low-carbon economy. The financial sector is increasingly aware of the need to shift capital flows away from companies and activities that contribute to the climate problem and into climate solutions.

In partnership with China Electricity Council (CEC), WRI developed a greenhouse gas (GHG) calculation tool for Chinese coal-fired power plants.

Rio de Janeiro is one of the world’s leading cities injecting sustainability into its planning. In 2011, Mayor Eduardo Paes enacted an ambitious climate change law, setting a goal to avoid 20 percent of its emissions by 2020, based on 2005 levels. There was only one problem: The city wasn’t sure just how much it was emitting, or where its emissions were coming from.

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol and Quantis have joined forces to develop and launch the Scope 3 Evaluator - a free, web-based tool that allows users to make an initial, rough approximation of their full Scope 3 footprint, regardless of the size or type of organization. Read the full press release here.

Chengdu Development and Reform Commission developed its first greenhouse gas inventory in 2015 (based on 2010 data). This inventory revealed valuable insights about the sources of the city’s emissions. 

China just announced a mitigation goal to peak its emissions by 2030 or earlier, while the United States committed to reduce its national emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. And countless other cities and countries have set similar emissions-reduction targets.