Modernizing Scope 2 Accounting Standards: White Paper & Webinar

For over 20 years, the GHG Protocol has served as the guidepost for companies looking to reduce their emissions. This protocol is the world’s most established and widely used GHG accounting standards for how companies, cities, and countries measure, manage, and report GHG emissions. Scope 2 emissions, or those coming from purchased electricity, have been almost universally tracked and reported according to the GHG Protocol’s Corporate Standard and Scope 2 Guidance. While these guidelines have proved foundational, they fail to accurately account for the emissions we consume. The GHG Protocol is now undergoing an update process, which presents a critical opportunity to better align these standards with science-based climate goals to empower businesses to be driving forces in the energy transition. 

In collaboration with the NorthBridge Group and the Clean Air Task Force, we’re excited to share the release of our new white paper: "Modernizing GHG Accounting Rules and Climate Leadership Programs: When Should Companies be Able to Claim They Consume Carbon-Free Electricity?" 

The paper is authored by Toby Ferenczi, our Founder and CEO, and well as the Founder of international standards body EnergyTag, Neil Fisher, Partner at the NorthBridge Group, Armond Cohen, Executive Director of the Clean Air Task Force.

The paper and launch webinar cover the shortcomings of current standards, particularly the GHG Protocol’s failure to accurately measure electricity-related emissions, its disregard for firm carbon-free electricity (CFE) and balancing resources (e.g., storage), and the overall lack of prioritization of emission-reduction actions. 

To address these challenges, we propose five key principles for emissions accounting that should be adhered to; 

• Location-matching
• Time-matching
• CFE Equality
• EAC ownership and allocation
• EAC integrity

Applying these five principles can unlock billions of dollars annually of targeted investment for the technologies most needed to decarbonize our energy system. In other words, this report couldn't come at a more crucial time. Despite progress, global efforts to curb emissions are still falling short of climate goals, with electricity use being a significant contributor as demand is projected to steadily increase.