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Top Ten Questions about the Scope 2 Guidance

On January 20, the GHG Protocol released the Scope 2 Guidance: an amendment to the Corporate Standard. It is the first major revision to the Corporate Standard in over 11 years. To help companies start implementing the Guidance, here are a few answers to the top ten questions you might have and where to find more information in the Guidance document.

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Scope 2 Guidance

The Scope 2 Guidance standardizes how corporations measure emissions from purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heat, and cooling (called “scope 2 emissions”).
The Scope 2 Guidance standardizes how corporations measure emissions from purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heat, and cooling (called “scope 2 emissions”).

The guidance includes:

  • New requirements for accounting for emissions from energy contracts and instruments (such as renewable energy credits) in GHG inventories
  • Eight Scope 2 Quality Criteria that all contractual instruments must meet in order to be a reliable data source for the scope 2 market-based method
  • Recommendations for transparently disclosing information about energy purchases
  • Eleven short case studies to illustrate the benefits of the new requirements

GHG Protocol recently held a public consultation on the Scope 2 Guidance (2015). The public consultation period began on October 20, 2025 and ended on January 31, 2026.  To learn more about the process, please refer to this page.

Corporate Standard

The standard covers the accounting and reporting of seven greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3). It was updated in 2015 with the Scope 2 Guidance, which allows companies to credibly measure and report emissions from purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heat, and cooling.