Financial Sector Guidance for Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting

Greenhouse Gas Protocol is partnering with UNEP Finance Initiative to develop guidance for the financial sector to account for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with lending and investments and track emissions reductions over time. This guidance will serve as a supplement to the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard.

Background

Acting as market makers, capital providers, and advisers, financial institutions and portfolio investors are important actors in the shift to a low-carbon economy. Many financial institutions and portfolio investors now report Scope 1 and 2 emissions, however, this says little about the full climate change impact of their business since most emissions from a financial institution are associated with their investments.

In the move towards a low-carbon economy, measuring and managing GHG emissions associated with investments needs to become standard business practice for financial institutions and portfolio investors. The GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard does provide a framework for reporting value chain emissions, including emissions from investments. However, the guidance provided is high-level and supplementary guidance is needed to enable financial institutions and portfolio investors to report accurately, consistently and transparently on the full impacts from their investments. For further details, the GHG Protocol Financial Sector Guidance concept note can be downloaded below.

Scoping survey

As the first step in the scoping phase, interested stakeholders were invited to participate in an online survey to assist in assessing the need and content of new guidance. The survey was open to any interested parties and ran from October to November 2012. A summary of the results of the survey is available to download below.

Scoping workshops

In addition to the online survey, two scoping workshops were held to gain in-person feedback and discuss the issues raised in the survey. The first of these scoping workshops was held in London (hosted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch) on December 19, 2012. A second scoping workshop was held in New York (hosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co.) on February 25, 2013. Summaries of the outcomes of the workshops are available to download below.

More information

To join the mailing list and receive information on the guidance development process, please complete the form at the bottom of this page.

For any additional questions, please contact Cynthia Cummis at ccummis@wri.org, or contact UNEP FI at carbon.disclosure@unepfi.org.

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Background documents

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