Greenhouse Gas Protocol: Asia-Pacific firms have work cut out on meeting climate-disclosure requirements, executive implementing standards says

The GHGP is ‘the basis for all existing standards’ for calculating greenhouse gas emissions, Alexander Bassen tells the Post

Asia expected to be both competitive and progressive on ESG disclosures: EY

3-MIN READ3-MIN

The Exchange Square complex, which houses the stock exchange, in Hong Kong. New disclosure requirements by bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing are set to come into effect on January 1 next year. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 7:30am, 19 Mar 2024

Companies in the Asia-Pacific region will need education, cooperation with suppliers and exchanges of best practices to meet tightening climate-disclosure requirements.

Climate disclosures are becoming mandatory for companies across the globe, and firms will need guidance on properly disclosing their carbon footprints in line with the classification framework developed by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP), which forms the basis for all existing standards for calculating emissions, said Alexander Bassen, the inaugural chair of the Independent Standards Board, the GHGP’s decision-making body tasked with approving and improving the protocol’s standards and guidance documents.

“The GHGP is the basis for all existing standards” for calculating greenhouse gas emissions, Bassen said in an interview.

“To support companies in Europe and Asia, training, clear guidelines and cooperation with customers and suppliers are necessary.”

The protocol was set up by Washington-based World Resources Institute and Geneva-headquartered World Business Council for Sustainable Development in 1998, to develop internationally accepted greenhouse gas accounting and reporting standards for businesses, and to promote their broad adoption.

More than 10,000 companies have reported their emissions to CDP, a non-profit previously known as Carbon Disclosure Project. CDP runs the world’s environmental disclosure system using the GHGP standards, according to the initiative’s website.