Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting is a critical tool for governments, businesses, and climate advocates to understand progress toward emission reduction goals over time, but local, state, national, corporate, and global methods use varying types of accounting systems, which creates complexity.

As the first installment of CETI’s decarbonization forum series, we produced an Emissions Accounting 101 document and a webinar to demystify the patchwork of methods that measure, report, and verify GHG emissions and reductions across different sectors and activities.

The Emissions Accounting 101 document summarizes the main methods used for emissions accounting globally and in the Northwest as well as key areas of evolution. The document:

• Details the methodologies used for jurisdictional emissions accounting and corporate emissions accounting
• Explains the complexities inherent in accounting for different types of GHG emissions
• Explores areas for advancement in these methodologies and technological innovations in GHG data collection
• Offers four scenarios that highlight real-world applications of GHG emissions accounting and inherent limitations in current practices

On December 10, CETI Research Fellow Jade Sauvé presented a webinar demystifying emissions accounting as part of her capstone project for the University of Washington’s Program on Climate Change. The webinar ended with an engaging question & answer session with the audience.

Dive Deeper with these Resources

• Demystifying Emissions Accounting Presentation: Slide Deck, Recording, and Q&A Summary (coming soon)‍
• Emissions Accounting 101 document