Dear GHG Protocol stakeholders,  

As you may know, GHG Protocol undertook a great deal of change last year – including the onboarding of a Steering Committee, a new governance body dedicated to providing strategic guidance on the goals and direction of GHG Protocol. Even before being announced in our roles as Steering Committee Chair and Vice Chair in June 2024, we’ve been impressed with GHG Protocol’s work. As we begin a new year, we want to share with you some of GHG Protocol’s accomplishments we’re particularly proud of and provide some updates for the coming year.  

2024 was a historic year for GHG Protocol with achievements that demonstrate continued commitment to strong governance and transparent processes.   

In addition to onboarding the Steering Committee, GHG Protocol established a second new governance body – the Independent Standards Board, which oversees the standard development and revisions process. 2024 also marked the beginning of the update process for the suite of corporate standards, with the convening of four Technical Working Groups tasked with developing proposals for consideration by the Independent Standards Board.  

The four Technical Working Groups, and their related subgroups, met a total of 24 times in 2024. We have heard from our colleagues about the incredible progress being made to tackle challenging questions and thorny issues.  

Another first in 2024 was the launch of a new Standards Development and Governance Repository to share Technical Working Group meeting materials and process documents to promote transparency and accountability. The repository is updated on a weekly basis and is a great way to follow along with the process. 

However, GHG Protocol isn’t new to robust governance – since its establishment in 1998, GHG Protocol has relied on a multi-stakeholder standard development process. For over 25 years, GHG Protocol has been committed to integrity in its processes, which we see reflected in this updated governance structure.   

GHG Protocol is unveiling an updated mission and vision to guide our work.   

We are delighted to announce that GHG Protocol has refined the articulation of its mission and vision that serves as our north star as GHG Protocol ushers in a new era of its work.  

Our mission is to develop the most credible, accessible, and widely used greenhouse gas accounting and reporting standards and to proactively facilitate their global adoption and implementation. 

GHG Protocol's vision is that all private and public entities account for their GHG emissions, enabling an acceleration in reductions in line with the global warming limits required by climate science. 

As we progress in the standards development and revision process, we have updated our timelines to deliver corporate greenhouse reporting standards that live up to our refreshed mission and vision. 

GHG Protocol’s Independent Standards Board and Steering Committee have approved “Standard Development Plans” for each Technical Working Group, which include the scope of work for each workstream and the updated standards development and revision timelines: Corporate Standard, Scope 2, Scope 3, and Actions and Market Instruments. GHG Protocol also published a document detailing the standards development and revisions process. All of these documents can be found in the repository. 

We are focused on reaching the following key milestones: 

The updated timelines are based on our current projections of the resources available to staff the revision process and the speed at which our new governance bodies can operate. We are actively seeking additional financial resources to accelerate the timelines to the greatest extent possible, while simultaneously looking into other opportunities that adequately balance speed of delivery with robustness of process. Ensuring adequate staffing capacity for our new governance bodies and ongoing implementation of our standard-setting procedure is a top priority in 2025.   

When sharing previous estimates for the updated standards publication timeline, we had anticipated that the strengthened governance structure would be finalized earlier than September 2024. While this process took longer than estimated, it was in the best long-term interest of GHG Protocol and our stakeholders that we took the time necessary to get it right. This included working with an outside executive search firm and processing over 1,650 applications for membership across the Steering Committee, Independent Standards Board, and four Technical Working Groups.   

Please note GHG Protocol’s current standards and guidance are still valid and apply until new standards are published. Companies may continue using the current materials on GHG Protocol’s webpage until GHG Protocol communicates otherwise. Disclosure and reporting programs that use GHG Protocol’s standards and guidance are expected to decide on when the new standards come into effect for their program.  

We recognize that companies rely on GHG Protocol standards and guidance for emissions disclosure and target setting and that having up-to-date standards is of the upmost importance to achieving ambitious climate goals. We take this responsibility very seriously and GHG Protocol is committed to moving as swiftly as is possible within our current capacity.   

We hope you had a gentle and restful holiday season, and we are excited to usher in the new year together.  

Sincerely,  

Geraldine Matchett, Steering Committee Chair 

Ovais Sarmad, Steering Committee Vice Chair