Promoting Greenhouse Gas Accounting in Asia

Since April of this year, a dangerous heatwave has engulfed extensive south and southeast Asian regions, from Pakistan to the Philippines. The severity of the situation is evident as thousands of schools were forced to shut down.

On April 30, Bangladesh recorded a scorching temperature of 43.8°C, and Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, experienced a soaring temperature of 40.1°C. On the other hand, the Philippines was warned by its weather agency as Metro Manila and 31 other areas faced dangerously high temperatures, with the heat index surpassing 40°C.

The WMO report warns that Asia remained “the world’s most disaster-hit region from weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2023”. Burning fossil fuels releases GHGs that trap the heat in our atmosphere, causing rapid changes in our global climate. Climate disasters will only worsen unless the world dramatically slashes its GHG emissions.

Asia is the highest GHG emitter in the world.

Asia, home to more than half of the world’s population, is a crucial player in the global climate crisis. The region is responsible for more than half of global primary energy consumption, and its accelerated economic growth is closely tied to its GHG emissions. With Asia now accounting for 51% of the total global emissions, the region’s considerable share of global emissions is a critical factor in how the world will reach its net-zero targets.

Countries in the Asia-Pacific are also identified as the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. WEF shows a 3.2°C temperature increase would deliver a 26% dip in the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP).

And it is even worse for Southeast Asia at a projected 37% reduction in GDP. Besides significant economic losses, the regions will suffer social and health impacts. However, a just energy transition in the area can also substantially benefit the region.

Expanding renewable energy, implementing energy efficiency in buildings, transportation and agriculture and greater circularity in producing industries while dramatically slashing GHG emissions is also projected to unlock 43% ($4.3 trillion) of the $10.1 trillion revenue opportunity available by 2030. Job growth will also expand, with more than half (58%) of the 395 million jobs required to service those opportunities in Asia.

Greenhouse Gas Accounting in Asia

One of the ways that the region can demonstrate its commitment to achieving net zero GHG is through disclosing its GHG emissions. Asia Pacific Pathways discusses how companies in Asia can go about their GHG accounting, beginning by gathering data and measuring emissions at each stage of the production process.  

GHG emissions are classified into three categories – Scope 1, 2, & 3. “Scope 1 (emissions directly generated by operational activities), Scope 2 (indirect emissions resulting from purchased electricity consumption), or Scope 3 (emissions throughout the entire process from upstream to downstream).

This classification prevents companies from appearing to reduce their own emissions by outsourcing these activities since Scope 3 includes outsourced activities. Scope 3 emissions often dominate a company’s total GHG emissions, accounting for 70%.” (Marriot & Aggarwal, 2023).

While measuring scope 1 & 2 emissions is quite straightforward, quantifying scope 3 presents challenges because it covers a long list of business activities, including upstream (purchased goods and services, waste generation in operations, business travel, employee commuting and so on.)  and downstream activities (downstream transportation and distribution, processing or sold products, end-of-life treatment of sold products, etc.).

Fortunately, there are now guidelines for companies to measure their scope 3 emissions. They could obtain emission data directly from major suppliers or use emission factors (EF).

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), EFs are “a representative value that attempts to relate the quantity of a pollutant released to the atmosphere with an activity associated with the release of that pollutant.” When estimating GHG emissions, emission factors are expressed as the mass of a gas per unit of the emissions-producing activity or material input, such as kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted per tonne of bituminous coal combusted (Sangree, 2022).

The EF is multiplied by the corresponding activity data, such as the production output of a manufacturing plant, the energy contained in a mass of fuel combusted, or the amount of electricity consumed. Activity data need to be converted to match the units used by the EF to calculate GHG emissions. The basic formula is activity data x emission factor = GHG emissions.

For a more accurate GHG accounting of Asian companies using emissions factor (EF), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) introduced a three-tier system:

• Tier 1 (basic method and incorporates default emission factor data using national, regional, or international data),
• Tier 2 (intermediate method, this method provides country- or region-specific emission factors with more localised data, hence lower uncertainty compared to Tier 1. ) and
• Tier 3 (most demanding, complex method using specific data derived from intricate emission models or direct emissions measurements. The Tier 3 emission factor also considers the technology type.).

Among Asian countries, Singapore and Malaysia have been the most advanced in developing and applying EF using Tier 2 & 3. China and India have made it a priority to create country-specific EF.

Learn more about GHG accounting in Asia: Promoting Corporate Climate Action Through Greenhouse Gas Accounting