Three Upcoming GHG Protocol Changes That Could Affect Your Inventory

Several significant GHG Protocol updates are on the horizon. Learn how proposed changes to scope 2, scope 3, and land sector accounting could affect your organization's emissions inventory.

Many companies are currently finalizing their 2025 greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories. While most are focused on current reporting requirements, several significant updates to the GHG Protocol (the most widely used framework for emissions accounting) are expected to take effect beginning in 2027. Companies that wait until the new requirements arrive may find themselves scrambling to adapt their data collection and accounting processes.

There are three key updates companies should be paying attention to this year:

1) Location and temporal matching for renewable energy

In October 2025, the GHG Protocol released a proposed update to scope 2 guidance (taking effect in 2027). The update included more precise location and time-matching requirements (for both location-based and market-based accounting methodologies):

a) Location matching – companies will now need to match the geography of power generation more closely. This might mean using regional or local emissions factors instead of national values where practical.

b) Temporal matching – companies will also need to better match the actual timing of the energy generation. Ideally, companies will “hourly match,” which means using emissions factors that reflect the emissions profile of the energy at the specific hour it was generated.

Both of these updates will help emissions better reflect where and when energy was generated but will also require an increase in data collection and reporting workloads for companies. In the short term, this proposed update will likely be challenging for companies to implement, as many companies, utilities, and certificate providers may not yet have the systems or data needed to support this level of detail.

For more details, see the GHG Protocol’s Scope 2 Guidance here or check out this summary from my colleagues at Ramboll!

2) More comprehensive value chain accounting

In March 2026, the GHG Protocol released a status update on planned scope 3 revisions. The full updated guidance has not yet been released, and will still need to go through a consultation period, but the status update provided insight into key upcoming proposed changes:

a) Improved data quality – companies will need to separate emissions into tiers based on the input data quality and indicate whether data has been verified. New requirements around emission factors, particularly for supplier provided data, will be aimed at improving accuracy and completeness of scope 3 calculations.

b) More inclusive boundary setting – the update will increase expectations around completeness, including a potential requirement for companies to account for at least 95% of relevant scope 3 emissions and a new “category 16” has been proposed to capture scope 3 emission sources not included in the current fifteen categories.

c) Shifts in investment emissions accounting – the guidance will also update category 15 (investments), including changes to the definition of an investment and updated calculation methodologies.

Companies have historically struggled to quantify scope 3 emissions consistently and accurately, in part due to limitations in data quality coming from value chain players. These updates will help to improve scope 3 reporting completeness and accuracy, but will increase company workload, particularly around data collection.

For more details, see the GHG Protocol status update here or read this nice summary here from Zevero!

3) New detailed guidance on the land sector and removals

In January 2026, the GHG Protocol released a major update to the Land Sector and Removals Guidance (taking effect in 2027). There’s a lot to digest in 100+ pages of guidance, but a few updates stand out:

a) Forest carbon accounting was excluded – the GHG Protocol continues to debate this controversial area of land sector and removals accounting and promises more guidance in the future, leaving companies without clear rules in the interim.

b) Emphasis on data quality and traceability – the new guidance sets out requirements around quality of input data and emissions factors, as well as requirements around tracing land-related emissions through a company’s value chain. Data quality has historically been a challenge when quantifying these emissions, so companies may struggle to comply with these requirements in the near term.

c) Carbon removals are more defined – the standard lays out requirements around how to quantify carbon removals in a more consistent and robust manner than previously shared, but continues to allow this part of GHG accounting to remain optional.

More broadly, the guidance continues the trend toward treating land based emissions and removals as distinct from traditional fossil fuel emissions and emphasizing the need to quantify both. As many companies today don’t quantify land-based emissions, particularly in their value chains, aligning to this standard may require significant effort, including establishing new data collection and accounting processes.

For more information on this update, see the GHG Protocol guidance here or refer to this summary I previously co-authored!

What should companies do next?

Given that it can take time to set up and/or update robust data collection and accounting processes, companies shouldn’t wait until the changes are implemented. With many companies wrapping up GHG inventories for 2025 and finalizing ESG reports, the second half of 2026 is the perfect time to evaluate how these changes might impact their GHG emission accounting and reporting in the future, before any changes start taking effect in 2027.

Common preparation steps could include:

·         Evaluating current scope 2 data availability and granularity

·         Identifying scope 3 categories that rely heavily on spend based estimates

·         Assess supplier engagement and data collection processes

·         Review land sector and removals accounting approaches if relevant

·         Monitor consultation periods and future guidance releases

Finding all these updates overwhelming or not sure where to start? Feel free to reach out to discuss how these changes apply to your situation or how to prepare for these updates before they take effect.