The WISER Path | Navigating GHG assessments
Goals of this article:
- Provide a clear link with the topic of tackling climate change
- Offer a simplified description of what is GHG assessment/reporting
- Present the core principles for credible GHG assessments
- List key benefits of life cycle GHG assessment for society
- Tackling Climate Change with Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Assessments
In today’s world, climate change stands as a key global challenge that still requires new solution pathways.
Since the start of scientific concerns for this topic in the 1950’s [1], global carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration has been measured because of its recognised greenhouse effect. This marked the beginning of modern greenhouse gas (GHG) assessments, which have led to a global scientific consensus that the rapid growth of human-made GHG emissions is the key reason for the observed climate change [2].
More recent GHG assessments from the IPCC task force on national GHG inventories [3] have also helped in identifying the human activities that are the main sources of GHG emissions. This information has been used by the IPCC to propose important societal changes to mitigate climate change [4].
These two examples show the importance of GHG assessments to acquire a better understanding of the scale of the problem and to identify ways that may help to tackle climate change, but other more recent GHG assessment options could lead to the identification of new solutions that are accessible to everyone.
- What are GHG assessments | Example
To understand how GHG assessments can help us address climate change, it is important to have a general understanding of how they are carried out.
At their core, there are two types of GHG assessments: They either account for and report on GHG concentration in the atmosphere or emissions from various sources. The accounting can be done with measurements or with models that are built from scientific knowledge or a combination of both.
The assessments of GHG concentration in the atmosphere are usually based on measurements around the world as in the first endeavour presented in the previous section [1].
The assessments that assign GHG emissions to specific human activities are typically done by using a combination of measurements and models that follow a set of rules defined in standards. Many institutions around the world have proposed such standards since the beginning of the 1990’s, which provide different perspectives on GHG sources.
Some of the standards give guidelines to account for direct GHG emissions from countries (e.g. National GHG inventory by the UNFCCC) or economic sectors (e.g. Air emission accounts following the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting). They can be used to check if countries are reaching their reduction targets in the context of international agreements [5] or to identify the key GHG sources of our activities around the world [6].
Other standards help in identifying the direct and indirect GHG emissions that relate to the activities of organisations as well as the value chains of their products or services. The standards for organisations help in respecting recent GHG disclosure regulations and to keep track of their GHG reduction efforts. The assessments that account for direct and indirect GHG emissions of organisations and their value chains are called carbon footprints and can be partly linked to what is often called “scope 3” GHG emission factors. They provide another type of information that can help in the identification of the choices that have a lower “GHG burden”, which offers many interesting opportunities. Indeed, it can help in the identification of the best options to reduce our impact on climate while meeting our needs.
*A more detailed description of the assessments of direct and indirect GHG emissions as well as the standards for organisations and their value chains will be presented in our blog post of August.
- Fundamental principles of GHG assessment
In order for GHG assessments to reach high credibility, it is important to follow some key principles:
Consistency is a prerequisite for comparing various GHG assessments in a fair manner. . It can be reached by ensuring that assessments are following the same rules.
Transparency increases the credibility of GHG assessments by providing all the necessary information to evaluate if the accounting and reporting is valid for the rules of a standard. A good level of transparency can be reached by providing the necessary information on the following rules, data, models and methods used in the assessment.
Comprehensiveness in GHG assessments is important to show that organisations are taking into account all the relevant activities and linking them to GHG emissions (directly or indirectly). Indeed, credibility can be quickly lost if a key GHG source is forgotten in the considered models.
Up-to-dateness of GHG assessments is important to show that the latest knowledge is used to provide insights into the sources of environmental impacts from organisations and their value chains. Using recent and updated information is made even more important today because of the fast evolution of climate change and the speed at which technologies are evolving.
Representativeness of models in GHG assessments is another important principle to follow when we want to offer accurate evaluations that can help in distinguishing different levels of GHG emissions from various systems and products.
- Key benefits of comprehensive GHG assessments
The importance and relevance of accounting and reporting the GHG concentration in the atmosphere or the direct GHG emissions in countries and the economy have been explained by the examples provided in the first section of this article.
The more comprehensive GHG assessments of organisations, products and services (aka carbon footprint), which has been developed more recently, provide us with other benefits that should be clarified.
The primary benefit comes from the identification of a link between all GHG emissions of value chains and the function(s) of organisations, products and services. This perspective helps us understand how our different needs are connected to GHG emissions around the world at different times. This cannot be easily understood by the evaluations of direct GHG emissions from countries and economic sectors during a year. Indeed, assessments of direct GHG emissions are mainly helping us in the identification of key GHG sources that should then be reduced, but this information often leaves us with questions on the potential ramifications of cutting such sources. For example, we know that cars are important sources of GHG emissions, but how do we stop using them given their importance in our everyday life. The carbon footprint of cars changes the question by giving us information on the vehicle options that have the lowest GHG emissions to answer our need for personal mobility.
Comprehensive GHG assessments can help us in many other ways:
Improved Decision-Making
Consider the decision-making process within an organisation. Accurate, credible and comprehensive GHG reporting provides the crucial data needed for making informed decisions and allowing the selection of different products or services that can help in reaching the GHG reduction targets of organisations. Without a comprehensive and credible picture of environmental performances from activities and suppliers, strategic decision-making is more or less guesswork.
Regulatory Compliance and Related Funding Requirements
Recent and upcoming regulations [7] on GHG reporting and targets will probably lead to an increased interest for companies to provide comprehensive assessments (direct + indirect emissions) of their organisations, products and services. Preparing for these new requirements will be important for all organisations that are participating in our economy since they are all part of some value chains so their customers will need the carbon footprint of their products and services. Furthermore, we can also expect that compliance with the GHG reporting regulation will become a requirement to acquire investment from funding institutions like banks, so preparing for such efforts can be of high benefit.
Contributing to Global Climate Goals
On a larger scale, comprehensive sustainable business strategies can more effectively contribute to achieving our global climate goals by limiting the risk of displacing the problem to other regions or at later periods. Comprehensive GHG assessments are therefore an important part of the long-term solution. Not just for the organisation; but as a part of the global effort to tackle the climate crisis.
Next On
In the upcoming edition, we will dive deeper into the different aspects of reporting, exploring specific practices and strategies that can enhance transparency and accountability in your organisation. Stay tuned for more insights from the WISER Flagship project.
