10 October 2024

24/7 renewable electricity matching is a far more credible approach for the GHG Protocol and the SBTi than the Emissions First Partnership proposal

With the Science Based Targets initiative and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol)‘s revisions in full swing, many actors are trying to inform and influence these processes, and renewable electricity accounting appears to be one of the most relevant and most contested issues.

This Q&A briefing highlights the importance of 24/7 renewable electricity matching and the technical issues of the competing Emissions First Partnership proposals. This briefing is a collaboration between NewClimate Institute, ECOS, Beyond Fossil Fuels, Carbon Market Watch, Stand.Earth and Action Speaks Louder.

The Climate Group’s 24/7 Carbon-free Coalition, which is supported by Google, Vodafone, AstraZeneca and Iron Mountain Data Centers, among others, can guide companies to make serious contributions to the energy transition and to reduce their GHG emission footprints, by matching their electricity consumption to local renewable electricity generated on an hourly basis.

In contrast, the Emissions First Partnership (EFP) championed by Amazon and Meta, among others, proposes a loosening of the current rules. Key aspects of the EFP proposal can fundamentally be considered a simple repackaging of the controversial offsetting model; this would legitimise loopholes and let major companies off the hook for tackling challenging yet key emission sources, distracting and delaying from real climate action.

The trivialised notion that this is a choice between focusing on clean and dirty grids is not an accurate reflection of the situation or the challenges of the energy transition: the largest electricity consumers need to take responsibility to cooperate and overcome the significant challenges to decarbonising the grids that they use, which increase at deeper levels of decarbonisation.