GHG Data Types
Definition
GHG Data Types denotes the range of available data used by organizations in disclosing GHG Emissions.[1], [2]
Activity Data
Activity data is a quantitative measure of a level of activity that results in GHG emissions (for example, liters of fuel consumed, or kilograms of material purchased).
A GHG Emission Factor is a factor that converts activity data into GHG emissions data (for example kg CO2 emitted per liter of fuel consumed, or kg CO2 emitted per kilograms of material produced).
Reported Data
Reported Data is either reported by companies and/or based on estimations by specialised data providers if companies do not report carbon emissions. Although data is provided by companies directly, reported data contains errors and biases, as there is no global mandatory framework which defines how GHG emissions should be accounted for, or mandatory third-party verification.
Companies decide which GHG emissions are within their system boundaries, and therefore reported, and which are not. This means that an investor can never be quite sure if a company really reports all GHG emissions that it should. A bias is also introduced by the fact that reporting companies are not evenly distributed between markets. Lastly, it is important to understand that reported data as well often contains estimations made by the reporting companies. A full set of scope 3 data always contains estimations, since it is impossible to measure, for example, the emissions of prod- ucts sold during their use.
Estimated Data
Estimated Data GHG data can be estimated with different methodologies, which can roughly be grouped as follows:
- bottom-up extrapolation based on reported data (regressions and/or sector averages)
- bottom-up calculation based on reported energy data (e.g. energy consumption)
- top-down modelling via Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA)
