Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Measuring and Disclosing Scope 3 Emissions - Case Study: Vodaphone

Vodaphone recognizes the growing climate impact of technology and has set ambitious targets, approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), to achieve net zero emissions across our full value chain by 2040. Our interim goals include becoming net zero in our own operations by 2028 in Europe and by 2035 in Africa, and halving scope 3 emissions by 2030.

2026 Sustainability Disclosure: A Guide for Companies

2026 is the year in which mandatory sustainability reporting comes into focus. Companies will continue required disclosures unless otherwise exempt by member states. Climate reporting deadlines under California's SB 253 will mark the first mandatory sustainability disclosures in the US. 

The Implications of Changes to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s draft revisions to scope 2 would materially change how corporate electricity procurement translates into reported market-based emissions. By tightening temporal correlation, deliverability, and treatment of uncovered consumption, the revision changes which instruments qualify and how much load they can cover under current conditions. 

EU Sets Binding 90 Percent Emissions Cut Target for 2040

ESG report: EU negotiators reached a provisional agreement to rewrite the European Climate Law and introduce a binding 90 percent cut in net greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 compared with 1990 levels. 

Global Corporates Restart Net Zero Commitments as Decarbonization Tools Expand, Accenture Finds

New analysis from Accenture shows that corporate ambition is once again rising across regions. The increase comes as firms expand the decarbonization toolkits embedded across their operations, supply chains and capital plans. Accenture’s Destination Net Zero 2025 report examined public disclosures from the 4,000 largest global companies by revenue and tracked emissions trends using S&P Global Trucost data. The share of the top 2,000 companies with net zero targets covering Scopes 1, 2 and 3 has climbed to 41 percent, up from 37 percent last year.  

China’s Carbon Emissions Hold Steady for 18 Months Amid Energy Transition Shift

China’s carbon dioxide emissions remained unchanged year-on-year in the third quarter, extending an 18-month period of flat or falling emissions. The data indicate that the world’s largest emitter may be entering a new phase of structural decoupling between economic growth and carbon output. The trend, which began in March 2024, suggests overall CO₂ emissions could fall in 2025.  

Inventory and Project Accounting: A Comparative Review

The use of project and inventory-based accounting methods have emerged as key areas of stakeholder interest within the context of GHG Protocol’s standards update process. Presented herein is a summarization of these two methods based on published GHG Protocol standards and their suggested appropriate uses.  

Scope 3 Frequently Asked Questions

A listing of questions and answers on how to interpret GHG (Greenhouse Gas) Protocol Scope 3 emissions reporting standards. 

USC Technology May Reduce Shipping Emissions by Half

Maritime shipping accounts for nearly 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but current solutions are expensive or impractical for long-distance voyages. New research shows how a shipboard system using limestone and seawater could cut maritime CO₂ emissions by 50%. 

Mastering scope 3: Measurement, Strategy, and Impact

Scope 3 covers everything outside of scopes 1 and 2 in your value chain, including both the upstream emissions from the production and transportation of your purchases, as well as the downstream emissions from customers when they use and dispose of your products. It covers the parts of your value chain you don’t directly control—which makes it the hardest to measure, but also the most important to address. This guide walks through the essentials of understanding, measuring, and managing scope 3 emissions.  

How Portfolio Decarbonization Can Help Building Owners Fight Climate Change Strategically

Carbon emissions are an immediate problem for several building types such as offices, schools, universities, banks, retail, residential, healthcare, and storage facilities. Buildings account for 39% of all global energy-related carbon emissions, with 28% coming from operational emissions — the energy needed to heat, cool, and power them — with the other 11% from construction and materials. Yet the built environment is lagging behind other industries in dealing with these emissions.

A Simple Explanation of the Carbon Cycle - Three Steps to Cut Your Carbon Footprint 60% Today

TEDx Talk:  Jackson Carpenter argues that the power to stop climate change rests on recognizing different kinds of carbon – a shift in perspective that allows us to change the world without changing our lifestyles. Jackson Carpenter has ten years’ experience working on solutions to climate change and the development of alternative fuels. 

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (GHG Scopes 1 & 2) 

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative is a multi-stakeholder partnership of businesses, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), governments, and others convened by the World Resources Institute (WRI), a U.S.-based environmental NGO, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a Geneva-based coalition of 170 international companies. Launched in 1998, the Initiative’s mission is to develop internationally accepted greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and reporting standards for business and to promote their broad adoption.

GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope3) Accounting and Reporting Standard 

Emissions of the anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHG) that drive climate change and its impacts around the world are growing. According to climate scientists, global carbon dioxide emissions must be cut by as much as 85 percent below 2000 levels by 2050 to limit global mean temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The GHG Protocol for Project Accounting

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative is a multi-stakeholder partnership of businesses, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), governments, and others convened by the World Resources Institute (WRI), a U.S.-based environmental NGO, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a Geneva-based coalition of 170 international companies. Launched in 1998, the Initiative’s mission is to develop internationally accepted greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and reporting standards for business and to promote their broad adoption.

GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard

Emissions of the anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHG) that drive climate change and its impacts around the world are growing. According to climate scientists, global carbon dioxide emissions must be cut by as much as 85 percent below 2000 levels by 2050 to limit global mean temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

SEC Proposes Rules to Enhance and Standardize Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors

Article on the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposal that would require registrants to include certain climate-related disclosures in their registration statements and periodic reports, including information about climate-related risks that are reasonably likely to have a material impact on their business, results of operations, or financial condition, and certain climate-related financial statement metrics. 

Will Net-Zero Get Us to Net Zero Emissions?

Net-zero is rapidly becoming the gold standard for corporate action on climate change. We articulate 15 limitations of net-zero commitments and review how we can build on current momentum.

Carbon cycle

Explanation of the Carbon Cycle. Carbon is the chemical backbone of life on Earth. Carbon compounds regulate the Earth’s temperature, make up the food that sustains us, and provide energy that fuels our global economy.

DOE Explains...the Carbon Cycle

Explanation of the Carbon Cycle. The carbon cycle describes how carbon moves between the atmosphere, soils, living creatures, the ocean, and human sources.

Biogeochemical Cycles

There are a few types of atoms that can be a part of a plant one day, an animal the next day, and then travel downstream as a part of a river’s water the following day. Explains Carbon and Nitrogen cycles; includes a discussion on smog.

The Carbon Cycle and Earth's Climate

Technical explanation of the Carbon Cycle, using basic organic chemistry.

Why methane from cattle warms the climate differently than CO2 from fossil fuels

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a warming potential more than 28 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2). But when it comes to livestock and climate change, there are many other characteristics that set biogenic methane (methane from cattle) apart from CO2.

GHG Protocol: Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions (version 1.0)

Supplement to the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard.  Until recently, companies have focused on emissions from their own operations under scope 1 and scope 2 of the GHG Protocol. Increasingly companies understand the need to also account for GHG emissions along their value chains and product portfolios to comprehensively manage GHG-related risks and opportunities.