Background: Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Accounting

The current climate situation has evolved around a scientific consensus that the concentration of carbon molecules in the atmosphere has drastically increased since the epoch of the industrial revolution beginning in 1750. Due to this increase of greenhouse gases (GHG) or large molecule gases that trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere, the average temperature of the globe has begun to rise. To prevent a continuation of this warming trend, the international community is working to build a cooperative effort to account for the overall global GHG emissions and then reduce those emissions to a safe level.

Strategy:

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) is the most widely used international accounting tool for government and business leaders to understand, quantify, and manage greenhouse gas emissions. The GHG Protocol Initiative, a decade-long partnership between the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, is working with businesses, governments, and environmental groups around the world to build a new generation of credible and effective emissions accounting and reduction programs for tackling climate change.

The GHG Protocol consists of two modules:

- Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standards: methodologies for business and other organizations to inventory and report all of the GHG emissions they produce. (“Corporate,” in this context, is meant to refer to both private and public sector organizations).

- Project Accounting Protocol and Guidelines: geared toward calculating reductions in GHG emissions from specific GHG-reduction projects. The Project Protocol is the most comprehensive, policy-neutral accounting tool for quantifying the greenhouse gas benefits of climate change mitigation projects.

The GHG Protocol provides the accounting framework for nearly every GHG standard and program in the world - from the International Standards Organization to the Carbon Disclosure Project to the California Climate Registry - as well as hundreds of GHG inventories prepared by individual companies.

Bringing the GHG Protocol to Developing Countries:

The GHG Protocol offers developing countries an internationally accepted management tool to help their businesses to compete in the global marketplace and their governments to make informed decisions about climate change. By forming partnerships with business, government, and environmental constituents in rapidly industrializing economies, the GHG Protocol Initiative is building the capacity to participate in a meaningful way in tackling the global climate challenge while meeting local sustainable development needs.

To date, the GHG Protocol has established a successful partnership with stakeholders in China, Mexico, the Philippines, Brazil, South Korea, and India.

For additional information on the GHG Protocol and associated GHG Programs, please see http://www.ghgprotocol.org/.

Accomplishments:

GHG Protocol-based ISO 14064 Greenhouse Gases Parts 1 and 2 Published as International Standards. The ISO 14064 Part 1 is based on and fully compatible with the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard. Through the implementation of ISO 14064 worldwide, the GHG Protocol standards and protocols are widely disseminated, adopted, and used by national governments, academics, NGOs, and businesses worldwide.

WRI facilitated the creation of The Climate Registry, a multi-state and tribe collaboration aimed at developing and managing a common greenhouse gas emissions reporting system. Currently, 34 U.S. states, representing over 70 percent of the U.S. population, in addition to two Canadian provinces and 1 tribe have joined.

The Mexican government has adopted a new national climate change strategy that identifies the GHG Protocol-based Mexico GHG Program as the basis of a step-by-step approach to climate change mitigation. The strategy begins with voluntary GHG accounting and reporting, progresses to energy sector GHG caps, and culminates in a national cap-and-trade scheme linked to international GHG markets.

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) information request for 2006 (CDP4) called for detailed information relating to business risk and climate change from 1,900 companies worldwide using the GHG Protocol. The CDP in 2006 was sent on behalf of 211 institutional investors with combined assets of over $31 trillion and has received an average 71 percent full response rate from businesses.

Forty-two of the world’s largest corporations follow GHG Protocol standards including, among others, Alcoa, BASF, Bayer, BP, Caterpillar, Daimler Chrysler, DuPont, Exelon, FedEx, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, Georgia-Pacific, International Paper, PG&E, Royal Dutch Shell, Unilever, UPS, Volkswagen, and Weyerhaeuser.

WRI and the Korea Energy Management Corporation (Kemco) sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to apply the GHG Protocol for national and regional GHG programs. A national greenhouse gas registry based on the GHG Protocol was launched in November 2006.

The Philippine Greenhouse Gas Accounting and Reporting Program (PhilGARP) - partnership between Klima Climate Change Center of the Manila Observatory, Philippine Business for the Environment, the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Energy, WBCSD, and WRI – was launched in November 2006. To date, 15 companies are completing GHG inventories, including DHL Global Forwarding, Ford Group Philippines, Shell, Nestle, and Holcim Philippines.

The China Energy and GHG Management Program – a voluntary business energy and GHG management program - was launched on June 1, 2007 with the China Business Council for Sustainable Development, WBCSD, and WRI.