Base Year Recalculation as a Key Tool for Monitoring Corporate Decarbonization Strategies

Companies worldwide have committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. In order to determine the development of emissions, a comparison of the calculated annual emissions with the emissions of a base year is required. However, a company’s base year emissions can undergo significant changes due to unavoidable changes in data, inventory boundaries or calculation methods. Consequently, it is recommended to recalculate the base year emissions to obtain reliable and comparable results. We therefore propose a procedure that can be used to decide whether a recalculation of the base year emissions is needed. This procedure and its effects are illustrated by an exemplary case study in which the decarbonization target achievement of fictitious car manufacturers with and without a base year recalculation is examined.