# How will the GHG Protocol treat green steel certificates and virtual PPAs?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/ghg-protocol-ami-green-steel-certificates

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

1. Publish a per-tonne figure for your product, with method and year, so buyers can use it as supplier-specific data.
2. Keep the evidence behind any low-carbon claim: fuel, power, scrap or clinker share, by batch or month.
3. 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](https://senseible.earth/answers/green-steel-certificate-scope-3)
- [SBTi V2 volume alignment targets](https://senseible.earth/answers/sbti-v2-volume-alignment-low-carbon-purchases)
- [When the new GHG Protocol standard lands](https://senseible.earth/answers/ghg-protocol-iso-joint-corporate-standard-2028)
- [Scope 3 supplier evidence](https://senseible.earth/scope-3-supplier-evidence)

Sources: [GHG Protocol, Actions and Market Instruments Standard page (Phase 1 white paper, 31 March 2026)](https://ghgprotocol.org/actions-and-market-instruments-standard), [GHG Protocol, Scope 2 market-based method update: from 2025-2026 public consultation to current status (16 October 2026)](https://ghgprotocol.org/blog/scope-2-market-based-method-update-2025-2026-public-consultation-current-status), [SBTi, Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0, Criteria (final, June 2026): C5.4](https://files.sciencebasedtargets.org/production/files/Corporate-Net-Zero-Standard-V2-Criteria.pdf)

Last reviewed 2026-11-01. GHG Protocol plans to publish a summary of the white paper feedback; re-check the AMI page each quarter.