The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) is the most widely used international accounting tool for government and business leaders to understand, quantify and manage greenhouse gas emissions.
It serves as the foundation for nearly every GHG standard and program in the world-from the International Standards Organization to The Climate Registry-as well as hundreds of GHG inventories prepared by individual companies.
The result of a decade-long partnership together with the World Resources Institute (WRI), the GHG Protocol helps businesses, governments and environmental groups around the world to build a new generation of credible and effective programs to tackle climate change.
The GHG Protocol Initiative arose when we and the WRI recognized that an international standard for corporate GHG accounting and reporting would be necessary in light of evolving climate change policy.
Together with large corporate partners such as British Petroleum and General Motors, WRI introduced a report called, Safe Climate, Sound Business that identifies an action agenda to address climate change, including the need for standardized GHG emissions measurement.
As we were discussing similar initiatives at that time, in late 1997, WRI senior managers met with us and an agreement was reached to launch an NGO-business partnership to address standardized methods for GHG accounting in 1998.
We then convened together a core steering group comprised of members from environmental groups (such as WWF, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, The Energy Research Institute) and from industry (such as Norsk Hydro, Tokyo Electric, Shell) to guide the multi-stakeholder standard development process.
The GHG Protocol sets the global standard for how to measure, manage and report greenhouse gas emissions.
Hundreds of companies and organizations around the world use GHG Protocol standards and tools to manage their emissions and become more efficient, resilient and prosperous.
The GHG Protocol also offers developing countries an internationally accepted management tool to help their businesses compete in the global marketplace and their governments make informed decisions about climate change.
Through the GHG Protocol Initiative we work with governments, industry associations, NGOs, businesses, and other organizations around the world to build credible, effective and robust GHG accounting and reporting platforms that serve as a foundation to address climate change.