Accounting for 89 percent of end-use electricity consumption, buildings are the focus of a new ‘Carbon Audit’ campaign aimed to tackle climate change in Hong Kong. On July 24, Hong Kong’s ‘Guidelines to Account for and Report on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals for buildings (Commercial, Residential or Institutional Purpose) in Hong Kong’ based on the WRI-WBCSD GHG Protocol was launched in a ceremony attended by 37 major organizations, including all of Hong Kong’s major property developers, as well as media.

GHG Protocol has published a draft royalty-free Licensing Policy and plans to integrate this agreement into all online calculation tools and standards in the New Year. GHG Protocol website visitors will be asked to sign-in before downloading all online tools and standards and will then be asked to accept or decline the license presented before them. Users will not be asked to accept the license every time they download tools and standards; a one-time review of the license is all that is required.

On May 23, in São Paulo, WRI, ICLEI, C40, USP-IEE, and EMBARQ Brazil jointly brought together more than 200 Brazilian city officials and experts to discuss how to use the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GPC) to measure and manage greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from cities. 

After a successful nine-month pilot test from May 2013 to January 2014, the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories (GPC) has been revised and is now available for public comment until August 18th. The authors particularly welcome review by city officials, practitioners, and technical experts in the fields of energy, transportation, waste management, agriculture and forestry. As a global reporting standard, the GPC enables cities and communities to consistently measure and report GHG emissions and develop climate action plans and low-emission urban development strategies.

At the end of each fiscal year, WRI designates ten outcomes across projects and programs as the ‘Top Ten Outcomes’ for a particular year. This year, the GHG Protocol’s work with The Climate Registry and the Mexico GHG Program was recognized as two of these top outcomes.

WRI celebrated its 30th Anniversary on May 23, with the "Courage to Lead" dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City. At the dinner, WRI recognized the contributions of its special guest, philanthropist and Mayor Michael Bloomberg; and honored Stephen Ross, chairman, CEO and founder of Related Companies; and Jonathan Lash, president of Hampshire College and WRI's former president.

The Climate Registry has finalized its General Reporting Protocol, which provides a consistent framework for companies and organizations across North America to measure and publicly report their Greenhouse Gas emissions. To date, the Climate Registry has the participation of over 250 reporting organizations, including WRI.

[email protected]Today 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 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. 

During the informal sessions of the U.N.’s Rio+20 conference on sustainable development last week, Rio de Janeiro city officials and the World Bank jointly launched a very timely project: the Rio Low-Carbon City Program. 

Fox television hit ‘24’ and the Los Angeles Clippers are both using WRI’s GHG Protoco

In late February, WRI is publishing a policy brief called “Designing a U.S.

The GHG Protocol periodically assesses the need for GHG accounting guidance within different business sectors and organizational types. We are currently scoping the GHG accounting needs associated with film and television production activities internationally, and are seeking stakeholders expert in this field to help illuminate the issues relating to GHG emission sources and accounting questions. Some of these potential issues include: