How will the GHG Protocol treat green steel certificates and virtual PPAs?
Not settled. GHG Protocol is writing an Actions and Market Instruments standard that proposes reporting such instruments in extra statements beside the physical inventory. Its Phase 1 white paper of 31 March 2026 drew almost 500 responses, is not a draft standard, and a draft consultation is planned for Q3 2027.
What is proposed
A multi-statement report: the physical GHG inventory stays as it is, and three statements sit beside it.
- Market-based GHG inventory statement: contracts, procurement choices, attributes and certificates.
- GHG impact statement: real-world effects of actions inside and outside the value chain.
- Non-GHG indicators statement: investment and procurement figures that are not tonnes.
Instruments in view
- Electricity: virtual power purchase agreements.
- Industry: green steel, chemicals and cement certificates.
- Transport: biomethane certificates and sustainable aviation fuel.
- Agriculture.
What applies today
Under the current Scope 3 Standard, use supplier-specific data for steel or cement you physically bought. A certificate for steel you did not receive has no settled place in the physical inventory yet. SBTi's Net-Zero Standard V2.0 already asks for instruments not in the physical inventory to be reported separately and to meet its integrity criteria (C5.4).
What a supplier can do now
- Publish a per-tonne figure for your product, with method and year, so buyers can use it as supplier-specific data.
- Keep the evidence behind any low-carbon claim: fuel, power, scrap or clinker share, by batch or month.
- Do not sell the same low-carbon attribute twice: as a certificate and inside a product figure.
What Senseible does here
Senseible builds your plant's Scope 1 and 2 from fuel invoices and power bills and keeps Scope 3 purchase lines as supplier evidence. It does not issue or trade certificates.
- Green steel certificates in Scope 3
- SBTi V2 volume alignment targets
- When the new GHG Protocol standard lands
- Scope 3 supplier evidence
Sources: GHG Protocol, Actions and Market Instruments Standard page (Phase 1 white paper, 31 March 2026), GHG Protocol, Scope 2 market-based method update: from 2025-2026 public consultation to current status (16 October 2026), SBTi, Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0, Criteria (final, June 2026): C5.4
Last reviewed 2026-11-01. GHG Protocol plans to publish a summary of the white paper feedback; re-check the AMI page each quarter.