Synopsis

This new Scope 2 Guidance represents a four-year global collaboration to harmonize methods for how companies report greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from purchased electricity, steam, heat, and cooling (called scope 2 emissions).

It amends the existing GHG Protocol Corporate Standard’s rules, strengthening the rigor and consistency of reporting while recognizing diverse market instruments and supplier arrangements. This clarification has the potential to transform corporate energy procurement practices around the world.

About

Four years in the making, the new Scope 2 Guidance is the most significant update to the Corporate Standard since its inception. The guidance was developed with the input of with over 200 representatives from companies, electricity utilities, government agencies, academia, industry associations, and civil society in over 23 countries.

The Scope 2 Guidance offers much needed clarity on how corporations measure emissions from electricity and other types of energy purchases. This heightened level of transparency could play a pivotal role in unleashing corporate demand for more renewable electricity.

Nearly 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions can be traced to energy generation, and half of that energy is used by industrial or commercial entities. To reduce these emissions, companies typically turn to energy conservation, efficiency upgrades, and supply switches to low-carbon electricity, whether through on-site installations or through changing (via contracts and electricity suppliers) the energy products purchased.

The Scope 2 Guidance is required reading for companies that follow the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard. For ten years, the Corporate Standard has provided a common framework for corporate greenhouse gas accounting; currently, 85% of companies that report their emissions to CDP have adopted the Corporate Standard.


See also the GHGP website for related publications.