Apple is among a group of 66 companies and industry organizations that has issued a joint statement opposing proposed changes to how companies account for clean energy use, reports 9to5Mac.
The group – which includes among others Apple, Amazon, BYD, eBay, Luxshare, and Salesforce – has issued a public statement against a key change in the rules governing corporate emissions reporting.
These changes are part of a revision process led by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP), a widely used framework that defines how companies measure and report their emissions.
The update focuses on how companies account for the electricity they purchase and use.
Currently, the rules allow companies to match their electricity use with clean energy on an annual basis. This typically involves using renewable energy certificates tied to power generated somewhere on the grid during the same year.
From the GHG Protocol proposal:
The proposed revisions recommended by the scope 2 Technical Working Group and approved by the Independent Standards Board to progress to public consultation seek to address the challenges with the status quo by requiring organizations using certificates to match them to consumption hourly, and from deliverable grid regions. This approach is consistent with how power markets settle supply and demand by hour within defined boundaries.
The proposed changes would require companies to match their electricity use with clean energy on an hourly basis, and from sources located within the same grid or regions that can physically deliver that power.
To drive critical climate progress, it’s imperative that we get this revision right. We strongly urge the GHGP to improve upon the existing guidance, but not stymie critical electricity decarbonization investments by mandating a change that fundamentally threatens participation in this voluntary market, which acts as the linchpin in decarbonization across nearly all sectors of the economy. The revised guidance must encourage more clean energy procurement and enable more impactful corporate action, not unintentionally discourage it.
In their statement, the companies argue that these stricter requirements should remain optional rather than mandatory.
The full public statement in opposition to the GHGP’s Scope 2 guidance revisions, is available at this link.
