GHG Protocol to delay stricter Scope 2 rule; 82% report low support

GHG Protocol plans to delay mandatory application of stricter Scope 2 rules requiring companies to match clean energy purchases to the time and location of use, ESG Today reported Oct. 26.

The revision would add two tests to market-based reporting of emissions from energy contracts and instruments. Hourly matching would tie contractual instruments to consumption hour by hour; deliverability would require the renewable electricity to come from the same electricity market where it is consumed. In a consultation launched in October 2025, 12% of companies said they supported hourly matching and 82% indicated low or no support. The deliverability proposal drew support from 19%, with 71% indicating low or no support.

For allocators, the delay leaves Scope 2 disclosures on 2015 guidance that lets a company claim an energy contract's environmental benefit without hourly or same-market matching. Fund selectors treating a fall in purchased-electricity emissions as progress against a transition mandate are looking at procurement terms as much as at delivered power.

GHG Protocol's stated reasons for the pullback were the very low levels of support in the consultation and concern that the requirements could discourage global corporate participation in voluntary clean energy procurement markets. The report gives no date for when, or whether, the stricter requirements would become mandatory.

Scope 2 covers emissions from purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heat and cooling, and the guidance standardizes how companies measure them. GHG Protocol says nearly 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions can be traced to energy generation, and that half of that energy is used by industrial or commercial entities. The revision would replace guidance first issued in 2015; the technical working group drafting it was set up in 2024.