Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reporting framework provider GHG Protocol announced the release of its new Land Sector and Removals (LSR) Standard, aimed at establishing the first global standard for companies to quantify, report, and track GHG emissions and CO2 removals from agricultural land use.
GHG Protocol was established in 1997 by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) to develop comprehensive global standardized frameworks to measure and manage GHG emissions from private and public sector operations, value chains and mitigation actions. GHG Protocol’s standards have been integrated and referenced in major global sustainability reporting frameworks including the IFRS Foundation’s ISSB standards and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) underlying the CSRD regulation.
According to GHG Protocol, the new standard aims to fill a major gap in emissions reporting, with the land sector, including agriculture, forestry, and other areas, accounting for around 22% of global GHG emissions, and the global land sink currently removing about 30% of annual anthropogenic net CO2 emissions, yet companies have until now lacked a credible and consistent method to report GHG emissions and CO2 removals from land use.
WBCSD Executive Vice President Dominic Waughray said:
“One of the bigger ‘blind spots’ in corporate carbon accounting has been the land sector. This standard removes much of that uncertainty by providing a globally recognized benchmark for measuring agricultural impacts with the same rigor as energy use.”
The new standard will take effect from the beginning of January 2027, after which companies with significant land-sector activities in their operations or value chain will be required to follow the standard, in order to conform with the GHG Protocol framework.
Metrics introduced in the new standard that have previously been underreported or excluded from companies’ GHG inventories include land use change emissions associated with land conversion and deforestation, impacts associated with land use and leakage due to global land use dynamics, emissions and removals from ongoing land management practices, biogenic emissions associated with the use of agricultural products, lifecycle emissions and removals from food, fiber, feed, and bioenergy products across the value chain, CO2 removals across natural climate solutions and CO2 removal technologies, CO2 capture and storage in geologic reservoirs, and carbon storage in long-lived products derived from CO2 removals.
According to GHG Protocol, the new standard was developed through a 5-year international multistakeholder governance process, involving over 300 external reviewers, more than 4,000 public comments, and pilot testing by 96 companies and supporting partners. The organization noted 2 complex issues addressed by its Independent Standards Board (ISB), including the treatment of agricultural leakage, or emissions that occur when a company’s actions displace food or feed production to lands beyond their operations or value chain, and forest carbon accounting.
While the new standard addresses agricultural leakage, with a requirement for companies engaging in activities with a high risk of agricultural leakage to account for and separately report these impacts, the GHG Protocol decided that forest carbon accounting would not feature in its initial version of the LSR Standard in order to avoid a delay in issuing the standard, with plans to issue a Request for Information in the near future to gather stakeholder input on how forest carbon accounting can best feature in a future update of the standard.
Craig Hanson, Managing Director of Programs at WRI, said:
“By providing this road-tested, science-based framework, GHG Protocol is equipping businesses — from global food producers and apparel retailers to innovative carbon removal startups — with credible methods that enable companies to track their progress and prove their impact.”
Click here to access the GHG Protocol’s new Land Sector and Removals Standard.
