WRI Stories Feed: GHG Protocol Initiative

Top Companies in Brazil Report Greenhouse Gas Emissions for the First Time

Jessica Forres — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:24:05 -0400

Petrobras, Ford Brasil, Wal-Mart Brasil, and Whirlpool are some of the first companies to voluntarily measure and publicly report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using the Brazil GHG Protocol Program, a project of the World Resources Institute (WRI).

The above picture was taken at the GHG Brazil Protocol Program commemorative event in Sao Paulo on October 8, 2009 when 27 companies released their GHG inventories to the public for the first time. Findings suggest nearly 30 companies that took part in the program are responsible for approximately 20 percent of Brazil’s energy and industry sector emissions, or 8.5 percent of Brazil’s total emissions excluding changes in land use and deforestation.

“The ability of developing countries to measure and verify GHG information is a major concern in international climate change talks and on Capitol Hill,” said Taryn Fransen, a senior associate with WRI’s GHG Protocol Initiative. “While Brazil’s inventory program is voluntary, it shows the industrialized world that companies in developing countries, such as Brazil, are serious about measuring and reporting their emissions, and our GHG Protocol programs are helping to build this capacity.”

Fransen added, “Voluntary reporting programs can pave the way for mandatory requirements in the future, as was the case in the United States, where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized a mandatory GHG reporting rule for U.S. companies.”

For instance, Rodrigo Rollemberg, senator of Brasilia, recently reintroduced a bill that would require all large public organizations and private companies to report their GHG inventories every two years. The bill would mandate use of the Brazil GHG Protocol Program’s methodologies.

Interest in voluntary GHG management among companies in Brazil continues to skyrocket and by early next year more than a hundred companies are expected to receive training in GHG accounting through WRI’s program.

“Brazilian companies recognize that climate change is a serious issue and are very aware of the need to transition to low-carbon growth to meet the demand of consumers. Based on the number of requests from new companies to join, we expect the program to expand significantly next year.” said Juarez Campos, program coordinator at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, which implements the GHG Protocol’s work in Brazil. A list of all program members can be found on the GHG Protocol website.

Brazil, China and India have developed GHG inventory programs based on the GHG Protocol— an international accounting tool developed by WRI and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) that’s used by corporations and governments to understand, quantify and manage emissions.

WRI Advances Green Supply Chain Initiative

Jessica Forres — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:48:08 -0400

The World Resources Institute (WRI) is stepping up its work on greening the supply chains of companies both big and small, thanks to a grant from Walmart.

“Sustainability is becoming a driver of business strategy for smart companies. Sustainability trends affect competitiveness, costs, regulatory risk, and market position,” said WRI president Jonathan Lash. “The companies that reduce emissions along their supply chains will capture new markets with their green offerings while preserving the environment and improving worker health and safety.”

WRI’s Green Supply Chain Initiative will develop and deploy a new set of accounting tools to measure the greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts of a company’s supply chain and of the products that are sold to customers. The project also involves creating a web tool that will bring clarity to the various environmental certifications given to products.

“Measuring greenhouse gas emissions is the first step to managing them,” said Rand Waddoups, senior director of sustainability for Walmart. “We think WRI can play an invaluable role in helping others understand the environmental and business benefit of collecting emissions information across the entire supply chain.”

“The initiative opens up tremendous access and opportunity for companies and other stakeholders to participate in the drafting and piloting of the new product and supply chain accounting tools, which are based on the success of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standard” said Pankaj Bhatia director of GHG Protocol Initiative at WRI. The GHG Protocol is an international accounting standard used by businesses to identify, calculate and report their own emissions. It was developed by the WRI and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in 1998.

Bhatia added, “These new standards will provide a framework that companies can use to evaluate a supplier’s performance, identify where emissions could be reduced along the supply chain or product life cycle and track the progress of GHG-reduction investments.”

Support from Walmart will also go toward developing a “Green Standards Guide” to help companies navigate through the “green” claims of different environmental certifications or labels. The guide is designed to provide greater transparency into the eco-label market place. It will help companies decide which eco-labels their organizations will recognize through a standard set of eco-label evaluation criteria.

The different and inconsistent criteria for eco-label standards have resulted in a vague and confusing concept of “green.” For supply chain managers looking to avert environmental risk, using environmental certifications has become increasingly complex and burdensome for themselves and their suppliers.

WRI’s expert on green supply chains Jeff Rodgers said, “We hope our work can help companies assess certification options for their products in ways that improve the environmental impact and lessen the burdens on businesses by identifying and helping compare the many different standards that currently exist.”

The grant also enables WRI to improve the environmental performance of suppliers in China by working with the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environment Affairs (IPE). The partnership will allow WRI to develop best-practice case studies for Chinese firms. These case studies, which can be used as training materials for industry, will highlight the practical and effective solutions adopted by China-based suppliers in resolving common environmental challenges such as water and air pollution.

The project will receive $420,000 in support from Walmart. Other funders for the project can be found on the GHG Protocol website.

Fox’s 24, L.A. Clippers, Others Use Accounting Tool to Cut Climate Emissions

Jessica Forres — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:55:29 -0400

The low-carbon diet is a growing trend in the sports and entertainment industries, where Fox TV’s 24 and pro basketball’s Los Angeles Clippers are using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol to cut their climate calories.

“Our goals are to fully understand our carbon and energy impact, to reduce that impact significantly, and inspire our employees to take action on this issue in their business and personal lives,” said Rachel Webber from News Corporation, the parent company of Twentieth Century Fox Television, which produces 24. “We have just begun this effort, and we hope it encourages others in the industry to do the same.”

“The GHG Protocol is considered the standard international accounting tool for government and business leaders to measure and manage corporate greenhouse gas emissions,” said Pankaj Bhatia, director of the GHG Protocol at the World Resources Institute (WRI). The GHG Protocol was established in 1998 by WRI and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Bhatia added, “It’s thrilling to see the application of our GHG Protocol in the sports and entertainment sectors, and in television shows like 24.”

When the producers of 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland, started using the GHG Protocol to calculate emissions, they found the largest sources originated from vehicles, special effects, and onsite generators. By changing some of the production practices, such as switching to biodiesel and hybrid cars, emissions were reduced by 43 percent.

The show’s environmental commitment is part of News Corporation’s global energy initiative to address its impact on climate change and lower the energy use of its businesses.

The sports industry is also striving to reduce emissions. The Los Angeles Clippers have teamed up with BeGreen, whose carbon offset methodologies are based on the GHG Protocol. To raise awareness of Earth Day 2009, the Clippers used a portion of their ticket sales from the game that day to reduce emissions from fan travel to and from the game and electricity usage at the Staples Center.

Also planning to use the GHG Protocol is Vancouver’s Olympic organizing committee. They hope to offset up to 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from the games – equal to the annual emissions from 50,000 European homes.

Since the publication of the first edition of The Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Standard in 2001, more than 1,000 businesses and organizations worldwide are using the GHG Protocol, including some of the world’s largest companies. The 2007 Corporate Climate Communications Report of the Fortune 500 companies by CoporateRegister.com reported that 63 percent of those companies use the GHG Protocol.

Other companies from various industries using the GHG Protocol include Target, Ikea, Unilever, Gap, Shell, Caterpillar, Marriott, Starbucks, General Electric, BP, IBM, VW, Bank of America, Timberland, Sony, Nike, 3M, Ford, Alcoa, Frito Lay, Staples, Xerox, Astra Zeneca and Wal-Mart.

Sao Paulo Adopts Comprehensive Climate Change Policy

Kaleigh Robinson — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:30:05 -0400

Sao Paulo recently became one of the first cities in the developing world to implement a citywide plan to fight climate change.

The city council unanimously approved law 14.933, which ambitiously aims to reduce Sao Paulo’s citywide greenhouse gas emissions by 30% of 2005 levels by 2012 through several measures comprehensively focused on transportation, renewable energy, energy efficiency, waste management, construction and land use.

The municipal government is currently defining further measures that will specify the details of the follow strategies laid out by the law:

Climate change mitigation

Transportation:
- Reduce fossil fuel used in public transit by 10% per year, with all city fleets running on renewable fuels by 2017
- Improve traffic management and decrease car demand by increasing public transportation access and use
- Create carpool lanes and bus corridors, start a ride sharing program, and improve infrastructure for urban bicycle use
- Develop GHG emissions standards for all vehicles registered in the municipality
Energy
- Promote the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies while incentivizing decentralized, renewable energy generation
- Implement energy efficiency and renewable energy programs in the construction, industry and transportation sectors
- Use higher energy efficiency and renewable energy standards in municipal lighting
- Incentivize research on renewable energy, energy efficiency and efficient products and processes
Waste Management
- Minimize waste and implement a city recycling program
- Require all new large buildings, such as condominiums and shopping malls, to demonstrate waste recycling plans in order to obtain permits
- Reduce emissions in city landfills through better waste treatment and methane capture projects
- Deter the use of plastic bags
Construction
- Develop new energy efficiency, sustainability and material quality regulations with which newly constructed or renovated buildings must comply to receive necessary permits
- Develop new efficiency and greenspace guidelines for all new public use construction
- Allow only legally harvested, certified wood to be used in municipal construction
Land Use
- Improve city planning to increase urban density in better distributed commercial and job centers throughout the city, thus requiring less travel by residents
- Recover preservation areas and create greenspaces throughout Sao Paulo, including a greenbelt
- Increase the number of trees throughout the city

Climate Change Adaptation

The Sao Paulo municipal bill moves past mitigation, and on to adaptation to climate change, as it institutes public health, education and defense measures:

Institute a climate change research, monitoring and rapid detection system
Create a climate change disease control and public education program, focusing on malaria and dengue fever
Prepare the civil defense forces for emergency response and prevention

Implementation

The bill requires Sao Paulo to complete a citywide GHG emissions inventory every five years—the first one having been reported in 2005—to track emissions reductions from the measures above. The municipal government will also create incentives for private sector companies to report GHG inventories.

WRI’s GHG Protocol program has been working in Brazil to promote emissions management by building technical and institutional capacity for GHG accounting and reporting within Brazilian businesses. This work, along with the database of emissions factors and GHG calculation tool developed by the program specifically for Brazil, will certainly assist companies and the city to accurately report emissions.

Finally, the bill directs financial resources towards its enactment through a variety of means: by allocating Special Environment and Sustainable Development Fund finances; by vesting authorities with the ability to establish incentives and fees; and by establishing a mechanism that provides payment for environmental services to property owners who recover, maintain and preserve parts of a planned Private Natural Heritage Reserve in Sao Paulo.

The Center for Sustainability Studies at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, one of WRI’s major Brazilian partners, played a key role in drafting the legislation. The next step in the policy’s implementation is the creation of a Municipal Climate Change Committee in Sao Paulo, made up of members of municipal and state government, civil society and academic institutions. The committee will begin an integrated rulemaking process, which will provide opportunities for public comment and participation.

A Model of Urban Climate Action

Several challenges remain. It may be difficult to gain support from some of the numerous sectors that the law will affect, and it is yet to be decided how much of the citywide 30% emissions reductions each sector will have to account for. Political will is also necessary, as Sao Paulo’s politicians now need to make tough decisions regarding the allocation of resources and funding towards the law´s implementation. Finally, passing such a law may prove easy compared to actually implementing and enforcing it. Only time will tell how Sao Paulo will deal with such challenges, but by simply passing such a law it has taken a significant step in managing its emissions.

As the first city in rapidly-developing Brazil to pass such legislation, Sao Paulo has become a pioneer in urban climate change action. Additionally, because the city is the fourth largest in the world, such action will not only produce vast emissions reductions, but important lessons for other metropolitan areas, allowing Sao Paulo to serve as a model for other cities worldwide, in developing and developed countries alike.

WRI’s Pershing Named No. 2 Climate Diplomat for Secretary Clinton

Paul Mackie — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:04:06 -0400

Dr. Jonathan Pershing today becomes the new Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change under U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Dr. Jonathan Pershing

Pershing will work alongside U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern, who was appointed by Clinton on January 26 as President Barack Obama’s lead climate negotiator.

For the past five-and-a-half years, since 2003, Pershing has been director of the Climate and Energy Program here at the World Resources Institute (WRI).

“I can think of no other person more fitting to handle the complexities and political considerations of creating domestic and international policy on climate, the most important issue of our time,” said WRI President Jonathan Lash. “We’ve been honored to have him build our climate team.”

At WRI, Pershing provided strategic vision for the Climate and Energy Program, which, under his leadership, grew from 4 to more than 40 people, and has a 2009 budget of more than $6.5 million.

Pershing said, “We have a huge task to do: the change in administration has not solved the problem, but rather opened a door to the possibility that we can do so. I am fortunate to have spent the past five years working with the extraordinary group at WRI and honing my thinking on how we might do this. Now the implementation phase begins.”

Pershing has served on the California Market Advisory Committee, was the facilitator for the Northeast states’ Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and for the Illinois Climate Change Advisory Group, and has testified numerous times before the U.S. Congress.

He has also advised major U.S. and multinational companies on the business strategies for climate change and building up green power. Pershing has been instrumental in WRI’s participation in the United States Climate Action Partnership.

On the international front, he is a regular participant in climate negotiations for the United Nations and was lead author for the recent Nobel-Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report. Pershing has led WRI’s initiative to grow the GHG Protocol into an international standard for greenhouse-gas accounting and reporting, and has been an active participant in the design of WRI’s new standards for carbon capture and storage.

Before joining WRI, he worked as the head of the energy and environment division at the International Energy Agency and served as deputy director and science advisor for the State Department’s Office of Global Climate Change.

Jennifer Layke, formerly Pershing’s deputy in WRI’s Climate and Energy Program, has been named acting director. She has been leading business and climate change initiatives at WRI since 1997.

EPA Establishes Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting

David Rich — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:05:41 -0400

The EPA is creating a nationwide database of greenhouse gas emissions, an important first step on the path to reducing U.S. emissions.

The Environmental Protection Agency released a proposed “Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule” for sixty days of public comment, with a final rule expected in late 2009. The proposal would cover 85 to 90 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions. This process is the result of legislation passed in December, 2007 that directed the EPA to design a national, mandatory GHG emissions registry. EPA’s work on a national registry lagged under the previous administration, but has received fast-track priority under incoming Administrator Lisa Jackson.

The plan would require 13,000 facilities to report their emissions. Facilities that emit 25,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases annually would be covered, and small businesses will be exempt. Reporting for sectors such as the utilities, oil and gas producers, and chemical refineries would start in 2011, while automobile manufacturers will start up on their 2011 models.

A Welcome Milestone

A national greenhouse gas registry is a major development in U.S. climate change policy, because it is the cornerstone of cap-and-trade, or indeed, any policy to measure and reduce emissions. Before the government can implement emission reduction policies, they first need to have solid and reliable emissions data. Otherwise, there would be no way to ensure that emissions sources—such as power plants and factories—are achieving reductions.

The EPA previously had no comprehensive way to track emissions data at the individual facility or business level. An EPA national registry will provide transparency and support a variety of climate change policies and programs at the national, regional, state, and local levels.

Unlike voluntary programs like the Climate Registry and Climate Leaders, which allow companies to demonstrate progress in reducing emissions across their entire business, the new federal reporting program will track the emissions of individual facilities, rather than companies as a whole. Also, reporting from those facilities will be mandatory, not voluntary.

A comprehensive GHG registry isn’t just good for the sake of policy, it’s good for business as well. Experience with voluntary programs shows that as companies measure their emissions, they typically gain a better understanding of where they are coming from, for instance, their supply chain, transportation, or in their electricity, heating, or cooling use. That knowledge helps identify cost-effective, even “no regrets” strategies for reducing their carbon emissions and improving their bottom line by saving energy.

A Solid Resource: WRI’s Greenhouse Gas Protocol

WRI experts participated in the EPA’s stakeholder process and have submitted comments throughout the rulemaking process. During the comment period, WRI will review the proposed rule and continuing to be engaged in the public comment period before the regulation is finalized later this year.

WRI brings more than a decade of experience to the discussion. For ten years, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative has been developing standards for greenhouse gas monitoring and reporting and promoting their broad use worldwide. Hundreds of companies in the US and around the world are reporting their GHG emissions on a voluntary basis following the GHG Protocol.

Last year, WRI released “Designing a U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Registry,” a policy brief that laid out a blueprint for lawmakers drawing up registries to follow. The brief also identified what features a successful registry must include.

WRI’s Statement on EPA’s New Regulation for Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Paul Mackie — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:57:00 -0400

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its mandatory greenhouse gas reporting regulation for public comment. The rule requires large emitters of greenhouse gases across the U.S. economy to monitor and report their emissions to the EPA.

Pankaj Bhatia“Monitoring and reporting of emissions is a critical step in laying the foundation for successful climate policy in the United States. In order to be effective, climate policies require accurate and reliable emissions data,” said Pankaj Bhatia, director of the GHG Protocol Initiative at the World Resources Institute (WRI).

In December 2007, the U.S. Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, which directed the EPA to establish mandatory reporting of greenhouse gas emissions from appropriate sources in all sectors of the U.S. economy. The EPA will soon begin tracking emissions from sources such as power plants, factories, and oil refineries as a step toward reducing U.S. emissions. Many of these sources do not currently track or report this information.

“WRI welcomes this important milestone in the U.S. response to climate change and has been involved in EPA’s stakeholder process by participating in meetings and submitting written comments over the last several months,” Bhatia said.

WRI’s GHG Protocol Initiative has been developing standards for greenhouse gas monitoring and reporting and promoting their broad use worldwide for 10 years. Hundreds of companies in the U.S. and around the world are now reporting their GHG emissions on a voluntary basis using the Protocol’s standards and calculation tools, facilitating the move to mandatory reporting.

Bhatia added, “Mandatory reporting represents an important next step as the U.S. moves to a mandatory approach to reducing climate change.”

WRI will continue to provide expertise to the EPA through the public comment period before the regulation is finalized later this year.

Measuring GHG Emissions Up and Down the Supply Chain

Laura Pocknell — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:43:41 -0500

A new collaboration launches to develop guidelines for measuring and managing corporate GHG emissions throughout the product life cycle and across the entire value chain.

The group is the GHG Protocol’s Product and Supply Chain Initiative, convened under the GHG Protocol. The project’s Steering Committee and technical working groups launched in September, in a series of meetings in Washington, DC and London, involving over 100 participants. The meetings signal the kickoff of a two-year process that ultimately will produce two new GHG Protocol publications that are expected to become international standards—product life cycle accounting guidelines and corporate value chain accounting guidelines.

The two new guidelines will allow organizations to understand and manage the life cycle GHG emissions associated with individual products, as well as emissions across the entire value chain. Like the previous standards, the new guidelines are being developed through an inclusive multi-stakeholder process—involving industry, government, NGOs and academia—to develop consensus GHG accounting and reporting methods.

GHG Protocol Steering Committee members in Washington, DCThe Steering Committee meeting included organizations such as the US Environmental Protection Agency, Wal-Mart, the European Commission, UNEP/SETAC, General Electric, and the Carbon Trust. The committee unanimously emphasized the urgent need to develop accounting methods that can lead to significant GHG reductions, support multiple business strategies, produce robust results, and encourage broad adoption by companies around the world.

Participants left the meeting enthusiastic about the evolving process. “The GHG Protocol has provided important guidance to companies, investors and individuals in a standardized method of GHG accounting” said Miranda Anderson, Director of Corporate Affairs for Sustainability at Wal-Mart. “This new effort to provide agreed-upon standards for measuring GHG emissions up and down the supply chain is needed as more and more companies seek to understand the full impact of the products they make, ship, and sell.”

The kick-off meeting for the technical working groups came two weeks later, and further established the need for robust and practical global guidelines.

“Businesses have been calling for a robust, consistent standard for measuring the carbon footprint of their goods and services,” explained Kay Williams, the representative from Defra, the UK’s environmental agency. “Defra along with the Carbon Trust have responded by sponsoring the British Standards Institute to develop PAS 2050. However, products and supply chains are global and we need an agreed international standard to assess these embedded emissions. By working with the GHG Protocol we hope to share our knowledge to develop a credible, practical and internationally acceptable method.”

“The Carbon Trust is delighted to be working with WRI and WBCSD in their work on carbon footprinting in product supply chains,” added Graham Sinden from Carbon Trust. “We see a strong relationship between this new initiative and the recent work of the Carbon Trust in developing PAS 2050 for product carbon footprinting, and we are keen to share the knowledge we have gained in this project to support further international development and harmonization of product carbon footprinting approaches.”

Opportunities and Challenges

There is a clear need for additional guidance on scope 3 (value chain) accounting and reporting at the corporate level, including recommendations for which scope 3 emissions sources a company should include in their inventory and how to calculate them. Participants said that the most significant opportunities for reducing emissions often reside with a company’s suppliers. The new guidelines will enable companies to determine where the greatest GHG reduction activities are in the value chain.

But experience so far with product-level GHG accounting has raised some interesting challenges, as shown by case studies presented in the working groups. One particular problem concerns how information is communicated publicly. Reflecting on PepsiCo’s experience, Robert ter Kuile, Senior Manager for Energy and Climate Change, asked “how can you ensure that consumers properly interpret the results from these studies when there might be 75 grams of carbon associated with a given product, when the product’s mass is only 30 grams? Communicating this information is very challenging.”

Nonetheless, several representatives declared that public communication may be what drives companies to make the needed GHG reductions to mitigate climate change, and they looked forward to making progress on this and other challenges.

The technical working groups will soon begin producing white papers and draft guidelines. Complete draft guidelines are expected within a year and final guidelines will be published by mid-to-late 2010.

Please visit GHG Protocol for more information. If you wish to participate in the process as a member of the stakeholder advisory group, please contact Anthony D’Agostino.

Hong Kong Adopts GHG Protocol for Building Sector

Angel Hsu — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:43:40 -0400

Hong Kong’s government adopts guidelines for GHG accounting in its building sectors, and announces a “carbon audit” of 10 of its buildings.

On July 24th, Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department unveiled its Guidelines to Account for and Report on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals for Buildings in Hong Kong. The launch ceremony was attended by 37 major organizations, including all of Hong Kong’s major property developers. The attendees signed on to a Carbon Reduction Charter, which requires organizations to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions from building energy use and to take specific actions to reduce their carbon footprint.

The guidelines use the accounting framework in the WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol’s Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard as its foundation. The Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard provides a systematic and scientific approach to account and report greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. WRI’s GHG Protocol team provided technical advice to the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department in developing these guidelines to assist in ensuring their consistency with international standards.

Hong Kong is the first Asian city to develop a national green buildings program based on the GHG Protocol; it is a major step forward in understanding and controlling greenhouse gas emissions in the region.

Additionally, the Hong Kong government will be one of the first governments in Asia to conduct a carbon audit of 10 of its buildings this year. Carbon audits of more than additional 100 public- and private-sector buildings are also planned for this year. According to the International Energy Agency, building use accounted for 72 percent of Hong Kong’s GHG emissions, and 89 percent of its electricity use in 2004.

“Reducing the level of electricity consumed for operation of buildings is crucial to reducing our GHG emissions,” said Secretary of Environment Edward Yau. Yau further noted the importance of private sector involvement in this initiative.

Yau also emphasized that the green buildings program will help Hong Kong’s overall environmental protection efforts. “Many GHG reduction measures can, in fact, help reduce air pollutant emissions and at the same time improve our air quality.”

In his 2007-08 policy address, Chief Executive Donald Tsang pledged to reduce the energy intensity of Hong Kong by at least 25 percent between 2005 and 2030. Since the building sector accounts for the majority of Hong Kong’s electricity consumption, it will have a significant role in meeting this target.

Attendees at the signing ceremony for the Carbon Reduction Charter

WRI’s China Climate, Energy and Pollution Program Director Deborah Seligsohn signed the Charter on behalf of WRI, which uses the GHG Protocol to track and control its own emissions. She highlighted the excellent partnership between the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department and WRI and expressed the hope that the Hong Kong audit, methodology and charter program could become a model for other cities in the region.

Indian Industry Launches National GHG Inventory Program

Neelam Singh — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:26:55 -0400

Continuing the positive trend in corporate greenhouse gas accounting, over 40 Indian companies launched the India GHG Inventory Program this week. The program is the latest national-level program for corporations to measure and manage their GHG emissions based on internationally recognized standards.

The India GHG Inventory Program comes out of a partnership between the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), The US EPA, and WRI. CII’s The Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Center will lead the implementation of the program.

Following the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and modeled after the US EPA Climate Leaders program, the India program will help companies to monitor their progress towards voluntary reduction goals in a consistent and credible manner. Over 40 companies from sectors such as iron and steel, cement, building, chemicals, and services have agreed to join the program.

A key component of CII-GBC’s Mission on Sustainable Growth (MSG), this business initiative will provide tools and technical assistance to companies to build inventories, identify reduction opportunities, establish both annual and long-term reduction goals, and track their progress based on the GHG Protocol. This program is unique in its basis in a broader set of principles established under the umbrella of MSG that aims to promote a holistic approach to environmental stewardship by encouraging businesses to pursue reduction goals on energy use, water use, waste, GHGs from a life cycle perspective.

The GHG Inventory Program will be a crucial step in establishing a national model on emissions accounting using a consistent standard, and in creating business and institutional capacity in the country to undertake comprehensive and credible GHG inventories and programs that can serve multiple business objectives nationally as well as globally. Accounting and measuring emissions can help businesses identify opportunities to reduce waste and costs, participate in GHG emission markets, and achieve corporate social responsibility goals.

India ranks seventh in the world in terms of annual GHG emissions, being responsible for 3.6% of world emissions. On a per capita basis, the country ranks 171st with 1.5 tons of CO2 emitted per person.

First launched in 2001, the GHG Protocol has become the most widely used accounting and reporting standard used by businesses, governments and other climate initiatives to inventory, report and track GHG emissions. According to a 2008 study by Corporate Register, out of the 335 Global FT500 companies studied, 63% aligned with the GHG Protocol, with companies from Japan and Europe leading the way.