Summary:
The Scope 2 Guidance standardizes how corporations measure emissions from purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heat and cooling (called “scope 2 emissions”).
The guidance includes:
- New requirements for accounting for emissions from energy contracts and instruments (such as renewable energy credits) in GHG inventories
- Eight Scope 2 Quality Criteria that all contractual instruments must meet in order to be a reliable data source for the scope 2 market-based method
- Recommendations for transparently disclosing information about energy purchases
- Eleven short case studies to illustrate the benefits of the new requirements
Key guidance is extracted in this section, you can go to the standard for all details.
| Section | Page |
|---|---|
| 1 Introduction | 4 |
| 1.1 The GHG Protocol | 5 |
| 1.2 The Corporate Standard’s approach to scope 2 emissions | 5 |
| 1.3 Key questions on scope 2 accounting and reporting | 6 |
| 1.4 Purpose of this Guidance | 7 |
| 1.5 Guidance overview | 7 |
| 1.6 Who should use this Guidance? | 8 |
| 1.7 How should I use this Guidance? | 9 |
| 1.8 How was this Guidance developed? | 10 |
| 1.9 Changes from the Corporate Standard | 10 |
| 1.10 Relationship to the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and Scope 3 Standard | 10 |
| 1.11 What does this Guidance not address? | 12 |
| 2 Business Goals | 14 |
| 2.1 Business goals of scope 2 accounting and reporting | 15 |
| 2.2 Identify and understand risks and opportunities associated with emissions from purchased and consumed electricity | 15 |
| 2.3 Identify GHG reduction opportunities, set reduction targets, and track performance | 19 |
| 2.4 Engage energy suppliers and partners in GHG management | 19 |
| 2.5 Enhance stakeholder information and corporate reputation through transparent public reporting | 19 |
| 3 Accounting and Reporting Principles | 20 |
| 4 Scope 2 Accounting Methods | 24 |
| 4.1 Approaches to accounting scope 2 | 25 |
| 4.2 Emission rate approach | 27 |
| 4.3 The decision-making value of each method’s results | 28 |
| 5 Identifying Scope 2 Emissions and Setting the Scope 2 Boundary | 32 |
| 5.1 Organizational boundaries | 33 |
| 5.2 Operational boundaries | 33 |
| 5.3 Defining scope 2 | 34 |
| 5.4 Distinguishing scopes reporting by electricity production/distribution method | 35 |
| 5.5 Avoiding double counting in scope 2 | 39 |
| 5.6 Avoiding double counting between owned energy generation assets (scope 1) and grid-delivered energy consumption in separate operations (scope 2) | 39 |
| 6 Calculating Emissions | 42 |
| 6.1 Identify GHG emissions sources for scope 2 | 43 |
| 6.2 Determine whether the market-based method applies for any operations | 43 |
| 6.3 Collect activity data | 44 |
| 6.4 Identify distribution scenarios and any certificate sales | 44 |
| 6.5 Choose emission factors for each method | 45 |
| 6.6 Match emission factors to each unit of electricity consumption | 49 |
| 6.7 Calculate emissions | 49 |
| 6.8 Roll up GHG emissions data to corporate level | 52 |
| 6.9 Optional: Calculate any avoided emissions and report separately | 52 |
| 6.10 Location-based emission factors | 53 |
| 6.11 Market-based emission factors data | 54 |
| 6.12 Treatment of biofuel emissions | 57 |
| 7 Accounting and Reporting Requirements | 58 |
| 7.1 Required information for scope 2 | 59 |
| 7.2 Recommended disclosure | 61 |
| 7.3 Optional information | 61 |
| 7.4 Dual reporting | 62 |
| 7.5 Additional guidance on Scope 2 Quality Criteria | 63 |
| 8 Recommended Reporting on Instrument Features and Policy Context | 66 |
| 8.1 Instrument feature disclosure | 67 |
| 8.2 Reporting on the relationship between voluntary purchases and regulatory policies | 69 |
| 9 Setting Reduction Targets and Tracking Emissions Over Time | 74 |
| 9.1 Setting a base year | 75 |
| 9.2 Recalculating base-year emissions | 75 |
| 9.3 Setting GHG targets | 76 |
| 9.4 Energy targets | 76 |
| 10 Key Concepts and Background in Energy Attribute Certificates and Claims | 78 |
| 10.1 Introduction to energy attribute tracking | 79 |
| 10.2 Defining energy attribute certificates | 80 |
| 10.3 Certificate uses | 84 |
| 10.4 Supplier disclosure | 84 |
| 10.5 Supplier quotas for delivery or sales of specific energy sources | 85 |
| 10.6 Tracking tax/levy exemptions | 86 |
| 10.7 Voluntary consumer programs | 86 |
| 10.8 How jurisdictional policies affect the role and impact of voluntary programs | 87 |
| 11 How companies can drive electricity supply changes with the Market-Based Method | 88 |
| 11.1 Energy attribute supply and demand | 89 |
| 11.2 Relationship between voluntary program impact and scope 2 accounting | 90 |
| 11.3 The role of “additionality” | 90 |
| 11.4 How can companies go further? | 91 |
| Appendices | 93 |
| A Accounting for steam, heat, and cooling | 94 |
| B Accounting for energy-related emissions throughout the value chain | 96 |