Mapping the landscape of corporate avoided emissions accounting methodologies

Increasing numbers of companies are disclosing estimates for avoided emissions caused by their products and services, with over 2000 companies reporting this to CDP in 2022. However, there appears to be a proliferation of attempts to standardise the quantification of avoided emissions, creating a crowded and complex landscape. This issue is therefore directly relevant to the current update process undertaken by the GHG Protocol. In order to provide an overview of developments in this field, this paper presents the results of a comprehensive mapping exercise of published methodologies and guidance based on responses to the 2022 CDP questionnaire, prior expert knowledge, and a web database search. In addition, the CDP data was analysed to show which methodologies are used most frequently. The research identifies 48 methodologies for avoided emissions quantification published since 2005 with an in recent years. However, an important finding is that a significant proportion of companies do not use a published methodology or cite the use of inappropriate methodologies calling into question the quality of disclosures on avoided emissions. On the basis of this research we recommend that the Greenhouse Gas Protocol should bring standardisation to this field of accounting.