Carbon Management

The GHG Protocol is arguably the de facto international standard-setter for corporate-level greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and disclosures, with its guidance underpinning many other prominent GHG reporting initiatives and emerging regulations, including those from the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), European Commission (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The GHG Protocol standards also underpin corporate GHG emissions target-setting programmes, such as the Science-based Targets Initiative (SBTi), which influence climate-related decisions and investments by companies around the world. It is therefore critical that the GHG Protocol standards are aligned with climate science and fit to purpose for each of these applications. The GHG Protocol is currently undertaking a process for updating its suite of corporate standards and guidance. This is, therefore, a key moment and opportunity for informing that process through the provision of high-quality academic research and independent analysis.

The GHG Protocol’s suite of standards include the Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, the Scope 3 Calculation Guidance, the Scope 2 Guidance, the Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard, the Policy and Action Standard, and the Protocol for Project Accounting, in addition to others.

The focus of this Article Collection is to attract quality papers that address any issues pertinent to the update of the GHG Protocol standards, including recommendations for new standards and guidance.
We welcome original research, case studies, or perspective articles. The potential topics include but are not limited to:

• Consequential GHG accounting (i.e., intervention or impact accounting)
• Avoided emissions
• Use of and accounting for carbon credits
• Climate-related risk and opportunity
• The purpose and limitations of corporate GHG inventories
• Treatment of interventions taken inside versus outside a company’s “value chain”
• Use of mass value and book-and-claim approaches to inventory accounting
• Performance accounting
• Scope 2
• Scope 3
• Market-based accounting
• Advised emissions
• Accounting for biogenic emissions
• Removals accounting and the application of “net zero” standards to corporate accounting and goal setting.
• Accounting for the duration of carbon storage
• E-liability accounting
• Transition plans
• Additionality
• The role of life cycle assessment/product in scope 3 accounting
• Portfolio carbon footprinting
• The use of labels for climate-related targets and claims (e.g. “carbon neutrality”, “impact neutrality” and “net zero”)
• The choice of metric for establishing equivalence between GHGs (GWP100 and its alternatives)
• Industry-specific accounting issues

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review. Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript. Please be sure to select the appropriate Article Collection title from the drop-down menu in the submission system.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is September 30th, 2024.

Please contact Pam Hohl at [email protected] for any queries and discount codes regarding this Article Collection.

Instructions for AuthorsSubmit an Article