A New Era in Carbon Accounting: What the ISO–GHG Protocol Partnership Means for Business

Introduction

The recent announcement of a strategic partnership between ISO and the GHG Protocol marks a major milestone in global carbon accounting. The two leading authorities on greenhouse gas measurement and reporting will harmonize their standards, creating a unified global framework. This collaboration promises to simplify carbon reporting, enhance consistency, and accelerate decarbonization efforts worldwide. For businesses, this development is more than a technical update, it is a call to action to align strategy, operations, and reporting with a coherent, globally recognized standard.

Why This Matters

Historically, companies faced fragmentation in GHG reporting, navigating multiple standards with varying scopes and verification requirements. This new partnership will:

• Combine ISO 1406X standards with GHG Protocol’s Corporate, Scope 2, and Scope 3 standards.

• Improve interoperability by leveraging existing alignments these standards already have with other international frameworks (e.g., IFRS S2, GRI 102 & 103, etc.)

• Introduce a harmonized approach for corporate, product, and project-level accounting that provides a trusted, credible framework for all stakeholders.

• Enable meaningful performance benchmarking where companies can compare their sustainability progress against peers using consistent, globally-accepted measurement protocols.

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The outcome is a common global language for emissions accounting, reducing confusion, enabling cross-border comparability, and supporting robust science-based decarbonization strategies.

5 Key Tips for Businesses: What This Means for You

1. Prepare for Harmonized Reporting

Conduct an initial gap analysis of your current reporting against both ISO 14064 and GHG Protocol requirements to identify overlaps and gaps. Strengthen data collection processes for areas where both standards already align, positioning your systems to adapt quickly.

2.Leverage Standardization to Build Trust

A globally recognized standard enhances credibility with investors, customers, and regulators. Companies that are positioned for early adoption can differentiate themselves as transparent and responsible.

3. Reassessing Current Systems

Use this transition period to establish robust data management systems by focusing on improving data quality and traceability across corporate, project and product levels.

4. Streamline Audit and Verification Processes

Using a coherent framework reduces duplicative reporting and simplifies verification, saving time and cost while improving auditability.

5. Turn Compliance into Opportunity

The unified standards will create a level playing field where real sustainability performance becomes the differentiator. Companies that are ready to implement harmonized reporting can benchmark more accurately against competitors, identify performance gaps, and capitalize on better emissions management to gain a market advantage.

Conclusion

The ISO–GHG Protocol partnership signals a pivotal shift toward clarity, convergence and consistency in carbon accounting. Businesses that act now to align with these harmonized standards will not only simplify reporting but also strengthen ESG performance, investor confidence, and market positioning. As global pressure to decarbonize intensifies, embracing this unified framework is no longer optional it is a strategic imperative.

Text written by: Wojciech Szewczak (KEO) and Sajeela Ghaffar (KEO)

Source:

RELEASE: ISO and GHG Protocol Announce Strategic Partnership to Deliver Unified Global Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting | GHG Protocol