# Is the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol a law, and who has to follow it?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/is-the-ghg-protocol-a-law

The GHG Protocol calls itself a partnership that writes accounting standards, and its Corporate Standard does not itself require you to report to WRI or WBCSD. It turns into a rule for you when a buyer, bank, scheme or regulator tells you to follow it.

## Who wrote it

The Corporate Standard, the main GHG Protocol rulebook for company footprints, describes the GHG Protocol Initiative as a multi-stakeholder partnership of businesses, non-governmental organisations, governments and others, convened by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). It was launched in 1998. Its stated mission is to develop internationally accepted greenhouse gas accounting and reporting standards for business and to promote their broad adoption.

My reading: that is a rulebook written by a partnership. The standard does not describe itself as a law.

## What the standard says about itself

- It does not require emissions information to be reported to WRI or WBCSD.
- It does not provide a standard for how verification should be conducted.
- It uses the word 'shall' in the chapters containing standards, to clarify what is required to prepare and report an inventory 'in accordance with' it. If you write 'prepared in accordance with the GHG Protocol', you are claiming you followed those 'shall' lines.
- It encourages use by all companies, regardless of their experience in preparing an inventory.

## Where it becomes a rule for you

The standard says that since greenhouse gas programs often have specific accounting and reporting requirements, companies should always check with any relevant programs for any additional requirements before developing their inventory.

In India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) sets the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) format. The July 2023 master circular says the top 1000 listed entities by market capitalisation have to submit it, and other listed entities can do so voluntarily. That format has its own wording. It lists the same seven gases the GHG Protocol now lists, and asks for Scope 1 and 2 in metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

## When a buyer writes 'follow the GHG Protocol'

1. Ask which part they mean: the Corporate Standard for your own Scope 1 and 2, the Scope 2 guidance for electricity, or the Scope 3 Standard, the GHG Protocol rulebook for a company's wider supply chain.
2. Calculate from your bills, keep the quantity and the factor source for each line, and keep the method the same each year.
3. Write down anything you left out and why. Then send it.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into records, so the quantities behind each figure are on file. It does not make a report official on its own. Whether a buyer or scheme accepts a figure is that buyer's or scheme's decision.

- [ISO 14064 or the GHG Protocol: which one?](https://senseible.earth/answers/iso-14064-vs-ghg-protocol)
- [Can I build my own spreadsheet instead of the GHG Protocol tools?](https://senseible.earth/answers/own-spreadsheet-or-ghg-protocol-tools)
- [Which gases does BRSR include?](https://senseible.earth/answers/brsr-which-greenhouse-gases-to-include)
- [Can I report only Scope 1 and Scope 2?](https://senseible.earth/answers/can-i-report-only-scope-1-and-2)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, revised edition (Introduction and the standard's own description)](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard), [SEBI Master Circular of 11 July 2023, Section IV-B and the BRSR format](https://www.sebi.gov.in/sebi_data/attachdocs/jul-2023/1689087475880.pdf)

Last reviewed 2026-11-07. Quotes are from the revised Corporate Standard (2004 edition); the GHG Protocol has since published newer guidance and is revising its standards, so check ghgprotocol.org before you quote an edition. The BRSR format lists the same seven gases the GHG Protocol now lists (seven since the 2013 required gases amendment, including NF3). The BRSR threshold is from the July 2023 SEBI master circular and SEBI has changed BRSR rules since; re-check the current SEBI circulars.