Leading industry associations and over 145 companies have signed a letter calling on the GHG Protocol to adopt a market-based approach for renewable gases in Scope 1 inventory and ensure that market instruments will be recognised in GHG inventories.
Led by the World Biogas Association (WBA), Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA), the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas, Eurogas, and the European Biogas Association (EBA), the signatories represent economic operators globally responsible for the production, trading and consumption of renewable gaseous fuels and their derivatives.
The GHG Protocol is the world’s leading standard for measuring and managing greenhouse gas emissions.
Widely used by businesses, governments, and organisations globally, it provides a framework for tracking, reporting and reducing emissions. Its influence shapes corporate climate strategies and drives accountability in emission reduction efforts.
Renewable gases and their derivatives are necessary to decarbonise industry, transport and buildings. To facilitate their rapid deployment, a market-based approach is required to overcome any economic, technical and environmental barriers and inefficiencies arising from the requirement of a physical (local) connection.
As the Corporate Standard of the GHG Protocol is being revised, the signatories urge its governance bodies to include such an approach in the Scope 1 inventory, for both fuel and feedstock applications.
Since the withdrawal of the former Scope 2 Guidance Annex, market actors are lacking a framework giving them certainty to invest, and the August 2023 ‘Interim Update on Accounting for Biomethane Certificates’ has not provided clear steering.
Additionally, the signatories appeal to the governing bodies to issue an interim statement in the first half of 2025, confirming that ‘robust market instruments for renewable gases will be recognised at the end of the Corporate Standard revision process to support the decarbonisation of industries’. This would provide stakeholders with clarity and confidence, as the development of revised standards can take several years.
Charlotte Morton OBE, Chief Executive of the WBA, emphasised the urgency of the issue.
“The Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s lack of guidance on the use of market-based mechanisms such as biomethane certificates has been suppressing the sector and delaying urgent and meaningful action to reduce global GHG emissions,” she said.
“We cannot afford to wait years for new standards to be developed. The sector needs certainty now to scale up efforts to prevent potent methane emissions while transforming organic wastes into clean, reliable, green gas for heat, power and transport that displaces its fossil equivalents.”
