Brown coal-fired power station amongst native trees and hills, emitting smoke from twin smokestacks and heat from three cooling towers: Yallourn Power Station in Latrobe Valley, Victoria to be closed in 2028 and be replaced by a huge battery: climate change, global warming, harmful to health, environmental issues.

Greenhouse gas emissions/removals

This impact category covers the direct and indirect effects of activities on emissions and/or removals of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

Metric:

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