GHG Protocol Introduces First Global Carbon Accounting Standard for Land Use and Removals

The GHG Protocol has released a new Land Sector and Removals (LSR) Standard, marking the first globally consistent framework for companies to measure, report, and track greenhouse gas emissions and carbon dioxide removals linked to agricultural land use and related activities. The standard is designed to close a long-standing gap in corporate carbon accounting by bringing land-based emissions and removals into the same level of rigor as energy and industrial emissions.

 

Addressing a Major Reporting Gap in Corporate Emissions

 

Land-based activities, including agriculture and forestry, account for roughly 22 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, while natural land systems currently absorb around 30 percent of annual net anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Despite this scale, companies have lacked a credible and comparable way to report emissions and removals associated with land use. According to GHG Protocol, the new standard provides a consistent methodology to quantify these impacts across operations and value chains.

The GHG Protocol, founded in 1997 by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, underpins many of the world’s leading sustainability frameworks. Its methodologies are embedded in international reporting regimes, including the IFRS Foundation’s ISSB standards and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards that support the CSRD.

 

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What the New Standard Covers

 

The LSR Standard introduces reporting requirements for several land-related metrics that have historically been excluded or inconsistently disclosed. These include emissions from land use change such as deforestation, impacts linked to land-use displacement and leakage, emissions and removals from ongoing land management, biogenic emissions from agricultural products, and lifecycle impacts of food, feed, fiber, and bioenergy across the value chain. It also covers CO2 removals from natural climate solutions, engineered carbon removal technologies, geological storage, and long-lived products derived from captured carbon.

Dominic Waughray, Executive Vice President at WBCSD, described land use as one of the biggest blind spots in corporate carbon accounting, noting that the new standard provides a globally recognized benchmark that applies the same discipline to agricultural impacts as to energy consumption.

 

Implementation Timeline and Scope

 

The LSR Standard will come into effect in January 2027. From that point, companies with significant land-sector activities in their operations or value chains will be required to apply the standard to remain aligned with the GHG Protocol framework. This timing gives organizations a transition period to build internal capabilities and data systems for land-based emissions and removals.

 

How Complex Issues Were Handled

 

Development of the standard followed a five-year international, multi-stakeholder process, involving more than 300 external reviewers, over 4,000 public comments, and pilot testing by 96 companies and partners. Two particularly complex issues were addressed by the GHG Protocol’s Independent Standards Board: agricultural leakage and forest carbon accounting.

The final standard requires companies operating in areas with a high risk of agricultural leakage to quantify and separately report these displaced emissions. Forest carbon accounting, however, has been deferred to a future update. GHG Protocol chose to exclude it from the initial release to avoid delaying the standard, with plans to issue a formal request for information to guide its inclusion later.

 

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Implications for Companies and Markets

 

Craig Hanson, Managing Director of Programs at WRI, said the new framework equips a wide range of businesses, from global food and apparel companies to carbon removal startups, with science-based methods to demonstrate real progress. As investors, regulators, and customers demand greater transparency around land use, biodiversity, and nature-related risks, the LSR Standard is expected to play a central role in aligning corporate disclosures with the true climate impact of land-based activities.

By formalizing how land emissions and removals are measured, the GHG Protocol is effectively expanding the boundaries of corporate carbon accounting, signaling that credible climate strategies must now account for what happens on the ground, not just in factories, offices, and supply chains.