Amount of greenhouse gas emissions and/or removals produced

Type

Impact driver

Units

Mass, e.g. tonnes of carbon (tC), carbon dioxide (tCO2) or carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2-e)

Example target

Benchmark against best practice

Example methods / guidance / references

What are tiers?

Tier 1

Estimate using own judgement and observations

Example tools/calculators: the Platform for Land and Nature Repair includes a greenhouse gas emissions calculator for Australian land managers and Agricultural Innovation Australia’s Environmental Accounting Platform provides a greenhouse gas emissions calculation engine for Australian agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

The Australian Government publishes methods that help companies and individuals estimate greenhouse gas emissions which are updated every year, available at National Greenhouse Accounts Factors.

Tier 2

Estimate using third-party professional estimates or public data

Tier 3

Model or measure based on site-specific surveys/sampling, remote or in-field sensing, laboratory analysis, etc.

Example data sources

Internal records

Third-party data sources

Data on scope 1 and scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions for corporations that are required to report in Australia under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 are available at Clean Energy Regulator – NGER reporting data and registers.

Site-specific measurements or model outputs

Notes

Amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced may be divided into scopes 1, 2 and 3 following the GHG Protocol. Corporate users may also wish to refer to IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures for further guidance.

Greenhouse gas removals refer to the the sequestration or draw-down of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, for example through carbon sequestration in soils or biomass, or the capture of carbon through technological means. Usually, this is only counted if the removal is ‘additional’ to any removals which would have happened anyway, and if the greenhouse gas is permanently retained (i.e. not likely to return to the atmosphere on a specified timescale, such as the next 100 years).

Greenhouse gas emissions and removals should be measured and reported in gross terms, but it may also be appropriate to measure and report in net terms, i.e. net emissions or net removals.

Last updated: 9th October 2024

Type

Impact driver

Units

Mass, e.g. tonnes (t)

Example target

Benchmark against best practice

Example methods / guidance / references

What are tiers?

Tier 1

Estimate using own judgement and observations

Tier 2

Estimate using third-party professional estimates or public data

Tier 3

Model or measure based on site-specific surveys/sampling, remote or in-field sensing, laboratory analysis, etc.

Example data sources

Internal records

Third-party data sources

Data on various emissions for corporations that are required to report in Australia under the National Environment Protection (National Pollutant Inventory) Measure are available at Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water – National Pollutant Inventory (NPI).

Site-specific measurements or model outputs

Notes

Examples of other air emissions include dust, particulates from burning, nitrogen emissions, etc. As different emissions may have very different effects on the environment, quantities of each type should be reported separately and not aggregated, unless there is a scientifically valid method for doing so.

Variants of this metric include TNFD core disclosure metric C2.4: “Non-GHG air pollutants (tonnes) by type:
• Particulate matter (PM2.5 and/or PM10);
• Nitrogen oxides (NO2, NO and NO3);
• Volatile organic compounds (VOC or NMVOC);
• Sulphur oxides (SO2, SO, SO3, SOX); and
• Ammonia (NH3).”

Last updated: 9th October 2024

Type

Impact driver

Units

Various

Example target

Benchmark against best practice

Example methods / guidance / references

What are tiers?

Tier 1

Estimate using own judgement and observations

Tier 2

Estimate using third-party professional estimates or public data

Tier 3

Model or measure based on site-specific surveys/sampling, remote or in-field sensing, laboratory analysis, etc.

Example data sources

Internal records

Third-party data sources

Maps showing light pollution are available at Light Pollution Map.

Site-specific measurements or model outputs

Notes

Variants of this metric include TNFD additional disclosure metric A2.3: “For example:
• Percentage of light fixtures that fully cut-off or are fully shielded, or are below 60W;
• Intensity of outdoor lighting (lumen/ha); and
• Average noise level on-site during noisiest part of the day, an hour either side of sunrise and an hour either side of sunset (dB); distance from nearest habitat (m).”

Last updated: 3rd October 2024

Type

State

Units

Number

Example target

Site-specific

Example methods / guidance / references

What are tiers?

Tier 1

Estimate using own judgement and observations

Tier 2

Estimate using third-party professional estimates or public data

Tier 3

Model or measure based on site-specific surveys/sampling, remote or in-field sensing, laboratory analysis, etc.

Example data sources

Internal records

Third-party data sources

Maps showing hourly air quality for New South Wales are available at NSW Government – Air quality in my area.

Site-specific measurements or model outputs

Data on hourly air quality for New South Wales are available at NSW Government – Air quality in my area.

Notes

Work in progress - Feedback welcome

Last updated: 16th October 2024