Greenhouse Gas and Climate Change: ISO 14064 VS GHG Protocol

Greenhouse gases consist of seven types that affect our lives in various ways.  These gasses are CO₂ (carbon dioxide), SF₆ (sulfur hexafluoride), CH₄ (methane), N₂O (dinitrogen monoxide), HFCs (hydrofluorocarbon), PCF_s (perfluorocarbon), and NF₃ (nitrogen trifluoride). Both natural and human-made, these gases accumulate in Earths atmosphere, creating the greenhouse effect. This effect acts like a blanket, stabilizing Earth by absorbing and re-emitting solar radiation. However, human activities such as burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial processes are increasing the concentrations of these gases. This enhancement of the greenhouse effect is unfortunately leading to global warming.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines global warming in its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) as a rise in combined average temperatures of the air and oceans at the Earths surface globally, over a period of 30 years. NASA describes global warming as the ongoing rise in Earths surface temperature that has been occurring since the pre-industrial era, between 1850 and 1900. Since then, human activities are believed to have raised Earth’s average temperature by approximately 1°C, with a continuing increase of about 0.2°C every decade. This rising temperature impacts not only the weather but also fundamentally affects life as we know it.

Global warming manifests through diverse and profound effects. Starting from the rise of global temperature, leading to changes in climate zones and agricultural productivity. The oceans, absorbing more heat, will alter the marine ecosystem and the livelihood dependendant on it and the increase of sea level rise. Melting ice sheets in large regions in Greenland or Antartica will lead to the raise in sea levels, endangering coastal communities. Glaciers recede at unprecedented rates will jeopardize freshwater supplies for agriculture and consumption.

Diminished snow cover will disrupts regions reliant on it for hydroelectric power and agriculture while also altering the local climate. Rising sea level can cause severe coastal flooding, coastlines erosions, and destroying habitats. The decline in Arctic sea ice will shift the wildlife patterns and global weather systems. Increase ocean acidification, due to CO₂ absorption, will damage marine life, especially shellfish and coral reefs, disrupting marine food chains. Lastly, the rise in extreme weather events like hurricanes, droghts, and heavy rain fall that will pose severe risks to communities, economies, and ecosystems.

The grave impacts of climate change shows that greenhouse gas emissions in maintaining the Earths sustainability for the well-being of its inhabitants. The impacts caused by the greenhouse gas emissions are deeply destructive, triggering a cascade of interconnected repercussions for the Earth’s inhabitant. In response, the international community signed the Kyoto Protocol during the third Conference of the Parties (COP3) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). This protocol established legally binding commitments that requires developed nations to reduce their emissions by an average of 5% below the levels of 1990 from 2008 to 2012.

Furthermore, the Kyoto Protocol introduced three market-based mechanisms: Emission Trading (ET), the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and Joint Implementation (JI) to support those commitments. However, the protocol faced significant challenges, such as the United States— a major emitter—signing but not ratifying the agreement. Its applicability only to developed countries also sparked debates about its effectiveness and fairness. Additionally, some countries struggled with their reduction commitments, while others relied solely on purchasing carbon credits instead of actual emission reductions.

The Protocol established a structured approach and set a precedent for future agreements, fostering a culture of accountability and the adoption of market mechanisms for reducing emissions. Following the Kyoto Protocol, international climate policy underwent another significant transformation that culminates in the Paris Agreement at COP21 in 2016. Under the Paris Agreement, nations committed to implementing the UNFCCC through comprehensive strategies including mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology development and transfer, capacity building, and transparency.

This agreement addressed previous challenges by ensuring participation from both developed and developing countries and introduced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for all countries. These NDCs aim to limit global temperature increases this century to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to make further efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Countries are required to update their NDCs every five years, enhancing their commitments progressively. A key challenge of the Paris Agreement is ensuring that each country can effectively meet and advance its NDCs.

Following the foundational Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement, the international communitys climate policy discussions continued with a series of COP meetings, including COP28 held in Dubai in 2023. This session centered on the imperative to transition away from fossil fuels and enhance financial commitments to support climate finance. Despite these efforts, COP28 was criticized for its vague terminology regarding the move away from fossil fuels, particularly the use of the phrase "transitioning away," which critics argued could permit some continued use of fossil fuels under the pretense of low emissions. This ambiguity in language reflects the broader challenges of aligning international climate action with the urgent need for clear and enforceable strategies that firmly commit to sustainable energy practices.

The international agreements play a crucial role in directing corporate strategies to lower carbon emissions. The Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) specified in the Paris Agreement encourage countries to be transparent and accountable by mandating that companies publicly disclose their emissions and efforts to reduce them. This encourages a collective effort towards a low-carbon economy. Moreover, these agreements facilitate financial incentives to steer investments towards sustainable projects and businesses.

Companies that actively reduce their emissions can gain financially from carbon credit markets. However, to implement this effectively, companies must accurately measure their emissions to create an effective reduction strategy. There are two main standard that a company can use, GHG Protocol or ISO 14064

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) is a global framework established by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). It was created in response to the recognized need for a universal standard for corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and reporting during the late 1990s. This protocol offers standardized methods that enable businesses and governments to accurately quantify and report their emissions. It provides a comprehensive set of standards, tools, guidance, and training to help both businesses and governments effectively measure and manage emissions that contribute to global warming. By 2016, 92% of Fortune 500 companies were utilizing the GHG Protocol to monitor, manage, and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. The GHG Protocol has issued several key standards, starting with the Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard in 2000 and the revised version in 2004, followed by the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard in 2011, the Scope 3 Calculation Guidance in 2013, and the Scope 2 Guidance in 2015.

The GHG Protocol offers a flexible structure that enhances broader and more accessible GHG reporting and management. It categorizes emissions into three main scopes to reflect a companys entire value chain both upstream and downstream. Specifically, Scope 1 covers direct emissions, Scope 2 addresses indirect emissions from purchased electricity, and Scope 3 encompasses other indirect emissions, which are further divided into 15 categories.

This categorization enables companies to tailor the standard to their sustainability strategies effectively. A notably underutilized aspect of the GHG Protocol is its boundary-setting feature, which allows companies to choose the extent of their operations included in the GHG Inventory. Companies can select from three approaches: equity share, financial control, or operational control, depending on the level of control or equity they have. This flexibility allows companies to adapt the protocol to their specific circumstances, enhancing the practical application of the standard in their environmental strategies.

The GHG Protocol categorizes emissions into Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3. Scope 1 covers direct emissions from sources that a company owns or controls directly, such as factories, vehicles, furnaces, boilers, refrigeration, and air conditioning equipment. Scope 2 includes indirect emissions from the electricity, steam, heating, and cooling that the company purchases and consumes. Scope 3 encompasses other indirect emissions divided into 15 categories, covering both upstream and downstream emissions.

Upstream emissions are those generated in the production of goods and services that the company uses, including the acquisition of goods and services, transportation of purchased fuels, waste from operations, employee commuting, business travel, and leased assets. Conversely, downstream emissions relate to the transportation of the companys sold goods and services, including the use of sold products, their end-of-life treatment, transportation and distribution, franchises, and leased assets (downstream).

The GHG Protocols standardized framework is a valuable tool for companies as it enables comprehensive coverage of relevant greenhouse gases and emission scopes. This framework provides companies with deep insights into their entire value chain emissions, allowing for informed decision-making and comparisons across sectors. By employing standardized methodologies, companies can establish industry benchmarks for total emissions and effectively track their reduction efforts.

Identifying emission hotspots within the value chain enables companies to pinpoint areas for improvement and monitor progress over time. This approach encourages companies to broaden their sustainability focus beyond their immediate operations, fostering engagement with suppliers and customers to promote sustainability initiatives throughout the supply chain. Below is Apple’s carbon footprint. By using the GHG Protocol, Apple is able to track which if its operation produces most emissions and the reduction opportunities that arises.

Considering the immediate urgency from the impact of greenhouse gas towards climate change, the International Standard Organization then decide to develop a working group in order to make a real-life contribution towards climate change. The key objective of this process was to create a technically rigorous but policy neutral product that would be applicable regardless a country’s current climate change policy. This started the ISO 1400’s series of standards for environmental management. The series started since 1996. This includes:

1.    ISO 14001 - Environmental Management Systems: Specifies the requirements for an environmental management system that an organization can use to enhance its environmental performance.

2.    ISO 14004 - General Guidelines on Implementation: Provides additional guidance to companies on establishing, implementing, maintaining, and improving an environmental management system.

3.    ISO 14005 - Guidelines for a Phased Implementation of an Environmental Management System: Includes simplifications for smaller organizations.

4.    ISO 14006 - Guidelines for Incorporating Ecodesign: Helps companies integrate ecodesign into their environmental management systems.

5.    ISO 14015 - Environmental Assessment of Sites and Organizations: Offers guidance on how to conduct environmental assessments.

6.    ISO 14020 - Environmental Labels and Declarations: Provides general principles for developing environmental labels and declarations.

7.    ISO 14031 - Environmental Performance Evaluation: Guidelines on how to evaluate environmental performance.

8.    ISO 14040 - Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Principles and Framework: Details the principles and framework for conducting life cycle assessments.

9.    ISO 14044 - Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Requirements and Guidelines: Provides requirements and guidelines for life cycle assessment including the definition of the goal and scope of the LCA, life cycle inventory analysis phase, life cycle impact assessment phase, and life cycle interpretation phase.

10. ISO 14046 - Water Footprint: Principles, Requirements and Guidelines: Specifies principles, requirements, and guidelines related to water footprint assessment.

11. ISO 14064-1, 14064-2, and 14064-3 - Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals: Covers different aspects of accounting and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and removals.

12. ISO 14065 - Greenhouse Gases — Requirements for Greenhouse Gas Validation and Verification Bodies: Provides requirements for bodies that audit and verify environmental reports, including greenhouse gas emissions.

13.
ISO 14067 - Carbon Footprint of Products: Requirements and guidelines for quantification and communication.

The ISO 14060 family is specific for providing clarity and consistency in quantifying, monitoring, reporting, and validating or verifying greenhouse gas emissions and removals. The standards included in the ISO 14060 family is the ISO 14064, USI 14065, ISO 14066, ISO 14067, and ISO/TR 14069. The ISO 14064 is a guidance for greenhouse gas quantification, monitoring, reporting, validation and verification at the organizational and project levels. The purpose of ISO 14064 is to:

·         Enhance environmental integrity by promoting consistency, transparency and credibility in GHG quantification, monitoring, reporting, and verification

·         Enable organizations to identify and manage GHG-related liabilities, assets and risk

·         Facilitate the trade of GHG allowances or credits

·         Support the design, development and implementation of comparable and consistent schemes or programmes.

·         ISO 14064 is divided into three parts. ISO 14064-1 is for quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removal at the organization level. ISO 14064-2 is for quantification, monitoring, and reporting greenhouse gas emission reduction or removal enhancements at the project level. Lastly, ISO 14064-3 is for the validation and verification of greenhouse gas assertions.

Quantification and reporting the greenhouse gas emission is provided in the ISO 14064-1. In establishing a ghg inventory, ISO 14064-1 stated that it must defined its GHG inventory boundaries. The organizational boundaries that it can use is either the control (financial or operational) or equity share approach. The GHG emissions should then be aggregated into the following categories:

·         Direct GHG emissions and removals. This includes emissions from stationary combustion, mobile combustion, process emissions and industrial processes, fugitive emissions, and from land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF).

·         Indirect GHG emissions from imported energy. This includes emissions from fuel combustion associated with the production of final energy and utilities. It excludes all upstream emissions (from cradle to power plant gate) associated with fuel, emissions due to the construction of the power plant, and emissions allocated to transport and distribution losses.

·         Indirect GHG emissions from transportation. This includes emissions that occur from sources located outside the organizational boundaries. Those sources are mobile and are mostly due to fuel burnt in transport equipment.

·         Indirect GHG emissions from products used by organization. Emissions are mostly due to the following phase in a “cradle to supplier output gate” approach

•        Indirect GHG emissions associated with the use of products from the organization. The emission is a result from products sold by the organization during life stages occurring after the organization’s production process.
•          Indirect GHG emissions from other sources. The purpose of this category is to capture any organization specific emission (or removal) that cannot be reported in any other category. In consequence, it is the organization’s responsibility to define the content of this particular category.

The ISO 14064 and GHG Protocol provide similar frameworks for guiding organizations in quantifying and reporting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, ISO 14064 stands out for its stringent emphasis on verification and validation, not merely on the quantification and reporting of emissions. This standard aims to ensure that emissions data are not only transparent and accurate but also thoroughly verifiable and traceable.

As a result, ISO 14064 is particularly valuable for organizations that require a reliable verification process as part of their GHG management strategy. The culmination of the verification process under ISO 14064 is the production of a "Greenhouse Gas Verification Opinion." This document is crucial as it validates the integrity of the GHG data reported by an organization, confirming its compliance with the standard, and is a key reason why organizations would use ISO 14064 for their GHG inventories.

Instead of viewing the two GHG standards as rivals, both the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064 should be used complementarily. The GHG Protocol provides detailed emissions measurements across different scopes, while ISO 14064 standardizes the verification process, enhancing the credibility and reliability of the data.

This enhanced credibility and reliability will meet necessary regulatory requirements, assuring stakeholders of the integrity of the data. In simpler terms, companies should use the GHG Protocol to measure and quantify their emissions across various scopes, while employing ISO 14064 to standardize the process and enhance the credibility and verifiability of the data.

Understanding and addressing the role of greenhouse gases in climate change is critical for the sustainability of our planet. The complexities and extensive impacts of these gases demand a nuanced approach to management and mitigation, and tools like the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064 provide comprehensive frameworks that help organizations quantify, manage, validate, and communicate their efforts effectively.

To navigate these complex standards and actively join the global fight against climate change, consider partnering with BATS Consulting. We are equipped to help your organization implement and report on your greenhouse gas emissions accurately, ensuring compliance and enhancing your sustainability credentials. Contact BATS Consulting today to collaborate on effective climate action strategies that make a difference, and together, we can forge a sustainable future.