Standards move means simplified greenhouse gas accounting

There’s good news for those involved in greenhouse gas emissions accounting.  The two major organisations setting standards for this work have announced that they are aligning parts of their current portfolios and will be working together to co-develop standards in the future.

With the aim of simplifying the carbon accounting process, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol have agreed to align their reporting and measuring frameworks for greenhouse gas emissions.

This is a valuable step forward. Historically the ISO 1406x family of standards and GHG Protocol have been developed separately, leading to a certain degree of confusion, duplication and fragmentation, none of which has been helpful to those tasked with reporting on carbon emissions.

This new move is intended to provide a common language for emissions accounting, which in turn is expected to reduce reporting burdens. It also creates better alignment with wider regulatory and disclosure developments, enabling organisations to benefit from a clearer picture around voluntary standards, disclosures and regulation.

Additionally, a new standard designed to help organisations demonstrate their net zero strategy, ISO 14060, is to published at the end of 2026 or early 2027.

Otherwise, nothing is happening imminently, and change is likely to take several years. We don’t expect any modifications to be major, as the two organisations are keen to minimise impact on users. Bywater will be monitoring changes so that we can review our sustainability courses in line with any new requirements.

Need an introduction to carbon footprinting standards? Take a look at our 1-day Carbon Footprinting and Reporting training course.

You can find out more about the planned changes at ghgprotocol.org.