WRI Publications Feed: GHG Protocol Initiative

Designing a U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Registry

Tim Herzog — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:05:07 -0500

With the federal government now debating the best way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a national scale, policymakers must also address the need to collect the emissions data necessary to ensure the success of U.S. climate change policies. The fi rst step in reducing emissions is to measure them. Without accurate and complete data on the sources of emissions and the amount they emit, the success of U.S. climate policies may be compromised.

In December 2007, Congress passed and President Bush signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008. The law includes a provision directing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to require mandatory reporting of greenhouse gas emissions from appropriate sources in all sectors of the U.S. economy. This policy brief explains the critical need for such a mandatory greenhouse gas emissions registry and reporting program and outlines key design elements to include in such a registry.

Summary Recommendations

A federal greenhouse gas emissions registry and reporting program will provide the foundation for effective climate change policies at the national, regional, state, and local levels. In the context of a cap-and-trade program, a registry is integral to the program’s success. A well-designed registry should:

Collect data at the facility level on a mandatory basis;
Collect accurate, complete, transparent, consistent, and verifi ed data in accordance with international standards;
Collect emissions data from all facilities covered by a cap-andtrade program;
Provide the infrastructure to support reporting from emission sources not regulated by a cap-and-trade program to support other policies and programs;
Collect high-quality emissions data before a cap-and-trade program becomes operational;
Collect information on both direct and indirect emissions;
Harmonize with voluntary corporate-wide registries, such as the Climate Registry; and
Make all emissions data available to the public.

Measuring to Manage: A Guide to Designing GHG Accounting and Reporting Programs

Laura Lee Dooley — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:34:11 -0500

As concern about climate change climbs to unprecedented levels, one of the most important steps that a country, region, or state can take to address it is to establish a sound and credible platform to account for and report greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from corporations.

Over the past decade, many efforts to design and implement programs to promote the measurement and management of corporate GHG emissions have emerged around the world. These programs are being developed at different geographic scales – including national, regional, state or provincial, and municipal – and support different functions – such as voluntary reporting of GHG emissions, GHG regulatory systems, and tracking progress towards GHG reduction targets – but all are based on a corporate-level GHG accounting and reporting platform.

As such, a common set of questions arises regarding their design and implementation:

What type of GHG program is needed to meet which objectives?
What geographic area should a program cover?
What should its accounting, calculation, and reporting specifications include?
How can the quality of reported information be ensured?

This publication aims to help interested groups, such as governments, industry associations, and environmental organizations, address these questions to design and implement effective GHG programs based on internationally accepted standards and methodologies for GHG accounting and reporting.

Drawing on the experience of WRI and WBCSD in working with partners to advise and implement GHG programs around the world, this guide aims to facilitate GHG program designers in developing customized accounting and reporting specifications to meet their needs and objectives.

Guidelines for Quantifying GHG Reductions from Grid-Connected Electricity Projects

admin — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0400

These guidelines supplement the Greenhouse Gas Protocol for Project Accounting, published in December 2005 by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. These guidelines are particularly useful to:

Project developers that want to quantify GHG reductions that do not fall within a particular GHG offset program or regulatory system. The guidelines provide procedures to account for GHG reductions resulting from individual project activities.
Designers of initiatives, systems, and programs that include grid-connected GHG projects. These users will find guidance for deriving marginal grid emission factors for determining the GHG emissions displaced or avoided by different types of project activities.

The guidelines are program- and policy-neutral, and are flexible in the choice of procedures and calculation methods. At the same time, they provide rigorous, comprehensive, transparent, and credible accounting of GHG reductions.

Designing a Customized Greenhouse Gas Calculation Tool

admin — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0400

The Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry Guidance for Greenhouse Gas Project Accounting

admin — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 01:00:00 -0400

The Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) Guidance for GHG Project Accounting (LULUCF Guidance) was developed by the World Resources Institute to supplement the Greenhouse Gas Protocol: The GHG Protocol for Project Accounting (Project Protocol). This document provides more specific guidance and uses more appropriate terminology and concepts to quantify and report GHG reductions from LULUCF project activities. The LULUCF Guidance was written in consultation with and reviewed by many stakeholders, similar to the process used to develop the Project Protocol.

The LULUCF Guidance is intended to be used in conjunction with – not in place of – the Project Protocol, so project developers should read the Project Protocol first in order to become familiar with the general framework for GHG project accounting, as most of this information is not repeated in the LULUCF Guidance.

The format of the LULUCF Guidance is similar to that of part II of the Project Protocol. Although the LULUCF Guidance may be used for all LULUCF project activities, it focuses on two project types: reforestation and forest management. This guide also can be used for avoided deforestation project activities, although they are not explicitly discussed.

The LULUCF Guidance has no requirements, it simply describes and illustrates, using one example: how the requirements in the Project Protocol for reforestation and forest management project activities should be fulfilled. It highlights those elements for which LULUCF project activities may need approaches slightly different from those in the Project Protocol. In addition, this document points out areas where GHG programs may improve the practicality of these methodologies, by reducing the uncertainty and transaction costs of developing GHG projects while at the same time enhancing the projects’ environmental integrity.

Greenhouse Gas Protocol: The GHG Protocol for Project Accounting

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 00:00:00 -0500

This report, released in December 2005, is a tool for determining the greenhouse gas emission reduction benefits of climate mitigation projects.

The report rovides specific principles, concepts, and methods for quantifying and reporting GHG reductions – i.e., the decreases in GHG emissions, or increases in removals and/or storage.

It was produced using a collaborative process involving businesses, NGOs, governments, academics, and others.

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (Revised Edition)

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0500

The GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard helps companies and other organizations to identify, calculate, and report GHG emissions. It is designed to set the standard for accurate, complete, consistent, relevant and transparent accounting and reporting of GHG emissions by companies and organizations, including information on setting organizational and operational boundaries, tracking emissions over time, and reporting emissions. It also provides guidance on GHG accounting and reporting principles, business goals and inventory design, managing inventory quality, accounting for GHG reductions, verification of GHG emissions, and setting a GHG target.

This revised edition of the GHG Protocol: Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard is the culmination of an extensive two-year multi-stakeholder dialogue, designed to improve the rigor, quality, and user-friendliness of the first edition. It provides standards and guidelines for companies and other types of organizations preparing a GHG emissions inventory. It is supplemented by a number of electronic GHG calculation tools, freely available on the GHG Protocol website, that provide step by step guidance on calculating GHG emissions from specific sources (e.g., stationary and mobile combustion, process emissions) and industry sectors (e.g., cement, pulp and paper aluminum, iron and steel and office-based organizations). It covers the accounting and reporting of the six greenhouse gases covered by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

This revised edition has been designed with the following objectives in mind:

Promote greater consistency, transparency and quality in corporate GHG accounting and reporting practices through the use of standardized approaches and principles;

Simplify and reduce the costs of corporate GHG accounting and;

Provide business with information that can be used to build an effective strategy to manage and reduce emissions;

Provide information that facilitates business participation in different GHG programs, including trading, registries, and other GHG reduction efforts; and

Increase consistency in GHG accounting and reporting between different GHG programs.

The corporate accounting and reporting standard builds on the experience and knowledge of over 350 leading experts drawn from businesses, NGOs, governments and accounting associations. It has been roadtested by over 30 companies in nine countries. The GHG Protocol Initiative’s vision is to harmonize GHG accounting and reporting standards internationally to ensure that different trading schemes and other climate related initiatives adopt consistent approaches to GHG accounting.