eprintid: 10204666
rev_number: 7
eprint_status: archive
userid: 699
dir: disk0/10/20/46/66
datestamp: 2025-02-13 12:53:45
lastmod: 2025-02-13 12:53:45
status_changed: 2025-02-13 12:53:45
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
sword_depositor: 699
creators_name: Cenci, Simone
creators_name: Biffis, Enrico
title: Lack of harmonisation of greenhouse gases reporting standards and the methane emissions gap
ispublished: pub
divisions: UCL
divisions: B04
divisions: C04
divisions: F34
keywords: Climate-change policy, Energy and society, Environmental impact
note: © 2025 Springer Nature Limited. his article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
abstract: Monitoring companies’ contributions to climate dynamics and their exposure to transition risks requires accurate measurements of their non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions (non-CO2 GHG). However, carbon accounting standards are not harmonised and allow for some discretion when converting emissions of different GHGs into CO2 equivalent units, the currency in which carbon footprints are expressed. Focusing on methane, we build counterfactual harmonised standards using the latest IPCC Global Warming Potential (GWP) values over 100 years and estimate a cumulative gap in reported methane emissions of 170MtCO2e ( ~6Tg) over a sample of 2864 companies. Changing the counterfactual from GWP100to GWP20, as recently codified in certain jurisdictions and initiatives, increases the cumulative gap to 3300MtCO2e ( ~40Tg). The gap only covers direct emissions and hence understates the extent of potential under-reporting across value chains. Overall, our study underscores the importance of global harmonisation of CO2-equivalence standards to coherently track corporate GHG emissions and their exposure to transition risks.
date: 2025-02-11
date_type: published
publisher: Nature Portfolio
official_url: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56845-3
oa_status: green
full_text_type: pub
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 2360087
doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-56845-3
lyricists_name: Cenci, Simone
lyricists_id: SCENC80
actors_name: Cenci, Simone
actors_id: SCENC80
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
publication: Nature Communications
volume: 16
article_number: 1537
citation:        Cenci, Simone;    Biffis, Enrico;      (2025)    Lack of harmonisation of greenhouse gases reporting standards and the methane emissions gap.                   Nature Communications , 16     , Article 1537.  10.1038/s41467-025-56845-3 <https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56845-3>.       Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10204666/1/CenciBiffis_2025.pdf