14 Nov 2024 – Best viewed on desktop
New Zealand and Australia published national emission factor (EF) registries in Aug 2023 and Singapore just did recently while Malaysia to catch up
The "fuss and fury-ous" of GHG emission reporting from emission factor registry to fast-tracking scope 3 reporting
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reporting for Sustainability Reporting has become a critical focus for organisations working to meet climate goals. However, the path from understanding emission factors to managing and reporting Scope 3 emissions especially for smaller organisations (which are suppliers to public listed companies or exporting to international markets) can be daunting and costly with confusion, creating both "fuss and fury-ous" challenges.
Fortunately, governments in Australia and New Zealand have taken proactive steps to simplify the process by offering Emission Factor (EF) registries that are publicly accessible, user-friendly, and offer detailed guidance. This, I think, deemed to be the benchmark national emission factor registry at least for the Asia Pacific region.
Emission Factors Simplified
At the heart of GHG reporting are emission factors, which help businesses calculate the amount of greenhouse gas emitted per unit of activity (e.g., per litre of petrol or diesel, per kilowatt-hour of electricity consumed, per km per passenger for public transport). Choosing the right emission factor is critical to accurately report emissions across different energy sources, industries, the reporting year and regions.
Scope 3: The Biggest Challenge
While Scope 1 (direct emissions) and Scope 2 (indirect emissions from energy use) are relatively straightforward, Scope 3 (indirect corporate value chain emission) — those occurring from activities in a company's value chain—pose a much greater challenge. Scope 3 has 15 categories (i.e. sub activities broken by upstream and downstream activities). See table below;
Scope 3 emission by the 15 categories | Value Chain Segment |
Category 1 - Purchased goods and services | Upstream |
Category 2 - Capital goods | Upstream |
Category 3 - Fuel- and energy-related activities | Upstream |
Category 4 - Upstream transportation and distribution | Upstream |
Category 5 - Waste generated in operations | Upstream |
Category 6 - Business travel | Upstream |
Category 7 - Employee commuting | Upstream |
Category 8 - Upstream leased assets | Upstream |
Category 9 - Downstream transportation and distribution | Downstream |
Category 10 - Processing of sold products | Downstream |
Category 11 - Use of sold products | Downstream |
Category 12 - End-of-life treatment of sold products | Downstream |
Category 13 - Downstream leased assets | Downstream |
Category 14 – Franchises | Downstream |
Category 15 - Investments | Downstream |
Table 1: Scope 3 (indirect corporate value chain emission) by categories
Scope 3 emissions often account for the majority (i.e. up to 90%) of a company's total emissions and can include everything from raw materials and transportation to product use and disposal. Accurately measuring Scope 3 emissions requires extensive data collection and collaboration, making it a daunting task.
New Zealand and Australia published emission factor made easy in Aug 2023
As early as Aug 2023, New Zealand and Australia have each created Emission Factor registries namely Measuring Emissions: A guide for organisations: 2023 emission factors summary and Australian National Greenhouse Account Factors respectively. These documents available pdf and spreadsheet not only simplify the process of selecting the appropriate emission factors but exemplify the use with calculation examples. These registries help standardize the data collection and hopefully improve the accuracy of GHG reporting. Singapore NetZeroHub.SG published on 4 Oct 2024. Malaysia with Policy, Assumptions, Calculators, and Education (PACE) under National Sustainability Reporting Framework (NSRF) are catching up and hopefully ready by 2025, if not sooner.
Country | Date published | Emission Factor Registry | Key Features | Source |
New Zealand | 7 Aug 2023 | Measuring Emissions: A guide for organisations: 2023 emission factors summary | 1. Comprehensive, step-by-step guide for users 2. Categories: fuels (stationary combustion, transport, biofuels, electricity), travel (air, bus, car, etc.), freight (road, rail, air), agriculture, forestry, GHG removal (e.g., forest planting) 3. Focus on detailed emissions from specific activities like working from home, international travel, and tree species-specific carbon storage | |
Australia | Aug 2023 | Australian National Greenhouse Accounts Factors | 1. Granularity with working examples, including Scope 1, 2, and 3 2. Categories include electricity, stationary combustion, transport (by fuel type), refrigerants, waste, biological treatment 3. User-friendly interface for quick selection of relevant factors | |
Singa-pore | 4 Oct 2024 | 1. More than 200 factors to calculate emissions 2. 8 categories: building equipment, building materials, fuel, greenhouse gases, land transport, purchased energy, waste and water. | ||
Malaysia | Not stated | Probably from PACE is an initiative designed to help companies to adopt National Sustainability Reporting Framework (NSRF) | Aims to simplify the process of measuring Scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions
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Table 2: Selected National Emission Factor Registry
These government-led initiatives (i.e. whole of government agencies WoGA) could reduce the complexity of emission factor selection, enabling businesses to focus more on reducing emissions and less on navigating regulatory hurdles.
Conclusion
The complexities of GHG emission reporting, especially with Scope 3, can be overwhelming. However, with the introduction of publicly available emission factor registries in Australia and New Zealand, businesses are better equipped to report accurately and efficiently. As these tools evolve and Singapore recently launched its own registry in 4 Oct 2024. The process of GHG reporting will continue to become simpler and more standardized, benefiting businesses and the environment alike. I am hopeful Malaysia will do the same to be regionally, if not globally, competitive.
Aleevar has recently facilitated workshop titled “Unlocked ESG: Awareness and DIY Made Easy” with Pernas as capacity building for organisation to kickstart their Sustainability Reporting journey.
For more information, contact info@aleevar.com