Can I deduct carbon credits I bought from my Scope 1 and 2 totals in BRSR or for a buyer?
No. Report Scope 1 and Scope 2 gross, as emitted, and show carbon credits you bought and retired as a separate line. The GHG Protocol keeps offsets outside the inventory, BRSR asks for gross emissions, and a buyer adding your figures to its Scope 3 needs gross figures too.
What the GHG Protocol says
The Corporate Standard treats offsets as outside the inventory. A company can report credits it has bought or retired, but as separate information, not subtracted from Scope 1, 2 or 3. The inventory describes what your operations emitted; a credit describes a reduction somewhere else.
How it looks in BRSR
- Principle 6 asks for total Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and intensity. Enter gross figures.
- SEBI's March 2025 circular added a voluntary leadership indicator for Green Credits under the Green Credit Rules, 2023. That is a count of Green Credits, not carbon credits, and it is not netted against emissions either.
- If you retired carbon credits, describe them in a note: registry, project, vintage, quantity and retirement serial numbers.
What a buyer needs
A buyer uses your Scope 1 and 2 to build its own Scope 3. If you send a net figure, its inventory understates what was emitted. Send gross figures and, if you want, add a note on credits retired. Net claims such as carbon neutral are a separate, governed claim and need their own evidence.
The one look-alike that is allowed
Renewable energy instruments are different from carbon credits. RECs, a green tariff or a qualifying PPA can lower your market-based Scope 2, because they describe the electricity you bought, under the Scope 2 Guidance. Report location-based Scope 2 alongside. A carbon credit can never be used this way.
Worked example: how to present it
- Scope 1: 300 t CO2e; Scope 2 location-based: 200 t CO2; total 500 t, reported gross
- Carbon credits retired for the year: 200 t CO2e, shown separately with registry and serial numbers
- Wrong: reporting 300 t as Scope 1 and 2 after deducting credits
- Right: 500 t gross, plus a separate line for 200 credits retired
What Senseible does here
Senseible reports gross emissions from your documents and does not net carbon credits against them. Credits you hold sit apart from the inventory.
Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, revised edition (2004), SEBI BRSR format (July 2023), SEBI circular, 28 March 2025, value chain and voluntary green credit disclosure
Last reviewed 2026-10-18.