By Stephen Russell

When the 2011 Newsweek Green Rankings were published, it came as a surprise to many that seven of the worst performing US companies were financial firms. The reason for such a poor performance was inadequate reporting of emissions in corporate supply chains; in the case of financial firms, emissions from their lending and investment portfolios.

By Laura Draucker - November 05, 2013

Nathanael Massey, E&E News. 

On its own, the global financial sector has a limited carbon footprint -- compared with manufacturing, mining and construction, for example, it barely registers at all. Yet each of those "heavy" industries is backed by the resources of banks and financial institutions, and those monetary relationships tie financiers, to a degree at least, to the emissions they capitalize.

Low-carbon development has become the core theme of China’s urbanization. In fact, it’s one of the country’s key strategies to achieve its target of reducing carbon intensity by 40-45 percent by 2020.

The Scope 2 Accounting Guidance is entering its final stage of development. The document will clarify how to account for and report GHG emissions from electricity purchase and use. It will also address the role of utility emission factors, power purchase agreements (PPAs), and tracking instruments such as renewable energy certificates (RECs) and Guarantees of Origin (GOs). A final public comment period for the Guidance will begin in September 2013 with final publication scheduled for January 2014. 

On July 22, 2013, WRI India, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) launched the India GHG Program, a voluntary initiative to standardize measurement and management of GHG emissions in India. 

The share of coal in global energy consumption is increasing, with most growth occurring in China, the largest coal consumer in the world. In China, coal-fired power plants are responsible for more than 45 percent of total fuel-combustion CO2 emissions. 

zainab.naeem@teri.res.inToday WRI India, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) launched the India Greenhouse Gas Program (India GHG Program), a voluntary initiative to standardize measurement and management of GHG emissions in India.

The GHG Protocol has released an accounting amendment that requires NF3 to be included in GHG inventories under the Corporate Standard, Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, and Product Standard.