Designing Greenhouse Gas Reporting Systems: Learning from Existing Programsby and -
Mandatory reporting programs help build a strong foundation to manage greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and strengthen countries’ capacity to adequately tackle climate change. This working paper provides insight into the factors influencing the design and development of reporting programs and capacities needed for their effective implementation. It identifies decision drivers and steps in developing mandatory GHG reporting programs.
Businesses measure their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for a variety of reasons—to assess their climate change risks and opportunities; to respond to demands from consumers, investors, and other stakeholders to access carbon markets; and to comply with government regulations. GHG emissions reporting programs offer a platform for companies and facilities to capture this information and can serve multiple objectives. For example, reliable data from a GHG reporting program can inform mitigation policies in a given jurisdiction. Programs can improve emissions data quality and help assess industry progress toward achieving national targets. They can also provide platforms to communicate emissions-related information to stakeholders.
This WRI working paper reviews corporate and facility-level mandatory reporting programs—from Australia, California, Canada, the European Union, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and identifies steps to implement a mandatory reporting program. The discussion is limited to mandatory programs requiring disclosure of GHG emissions (as opposed to voluntary reporting), and to facility- and corporate-level reporting (as opposed to national, regional, or city inventories).