# Can I deduct carbon credits I bought from my Scope 1 and 2 totals in BRSR or for a buyer?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/deduct-carbon-credits-from-scope-1-brsr

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.

- [How many carbon credits do I need?](https://senseible.earth/answers/how-many-carbon-credits-do-i-need)
- [BRSR Green Credits disclosure](https://senseible.earth/answers/brsr-green-credits-disclosure)
- [Checking carbon credit retirement](https://senseible.earth/answers/how-to-check-carbon-credit-retirement)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, revised edition (2004)](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard), [SEBI BRSR format (July 2023)](https://www.sebi.gov.in/sebi_data/attachdocs/jul-2023/1689087475880.pdf), [SEBI circular, 28 March 2025, value chain and voluntary green credit disclosure](https://www.sebi.gov.in/legal/circulars/mar-2025/measures-to-facilitate-ease-of-doing-business-with-respect-to-framework-for-assurance-or-assessment-esg-disclosures-for-value-chain-and-introduction-of-voluntary-disclosure-on-green-credits_93102.html)

Last reviewed 2026-10-18.