What are Scope 2 quality criteria?
Scope 2 quality criteria test the contracts, certificates, and supplier information behind a market-based Scope 2 total. They do not calculate emissions or prove that specified electricity physically reached your site. For the two accounting methods, see Scope 2 emissions.
GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance Table 7.1 sets eight checks. Here, an instrument means a contract, certificate, or supplier rate that carries information about the electricity you bought. If it fails a relevant check, do not use its emission rate for that electricity. Use the next available source listed in Table 6.3 instead.
Why do Scope 2 quality criteria matter to you?
A customer, reporting platform, or assurance provider may ask you to prove a renewable-electricity or supplier-specific claim. Keep the contract, certificate identifiers, retirement record, generation period, and market check. CDP's 2026 technical note says Question 7.7 lets you describe how much of your market-based total does not meet the criteria. It also tells you to disclose when you used a location-based factor because no residual mix or more precise market-based factor was available. A residual mix is the factor for unclaimed electricity.
How do Scope 2 quality criteria work?
Check each instrument against the criteria that apply:
- 1. Emission rate: it conveys the direct GHG emission rate attribute for each unit of electricity.
- 2. Unique claim: no other instrument carries that rate claim for the same generation.
- 3. Retirement: it is tracked and redeemed, retired, or cancelled for your company.
- 4. Vintage: its issue and redemption dates are as close as possible to the consumption period.
- 5. Market boundary: it comes from the same recognised market as the electricity-consuming operation. This is the Scope 2 market boundary. Follow the certificate issuer's or regulator's trading and retirement boundary.
- 6. Supplier factor: a utility or supplier factor covers delivered electricity and adjusts for attributes sold to other customers.
- 7. Direct generation: attributes from a direct contract or on-site generation transfer only to your company, with no duplicate end-user instrument.
- 8. Residual mix: an adjusted factor covers unclaimed electricity, or you disclose that no such factor is available.
What mistakes should you avoid?
- Accepting a renewable label or invoice without proof of the attribute, quantity, owner, and retirement.
- Using a foreign certificate because the grids connect, without checking whether the schemes recognise one market.
- Matching megawatt-hours but ignoring the generation year and reporting period.
- Applying a certificate rate to uncovered electricity or hiding the absence of a residual mix.
What records should you keep for each instrument?
Keep the contract, certificate type and serial numbers, megawatt-hours, generation dates, issuing body, ownership chain, retirement date, named beneficiary, and the market rule you applied. For a supplier factor, keep the calculation and treatment of sold certificates. Record the residual-mix source or state that none was available.
What happens if an instrument fails a criterion?
Do not use its emission rate for the affected electricity. Move to the next eligible source in Table 6.3, such as an eligible supplier factor or residual mix. If only a grid-average factor is available, use it in the market-based total for that quantity and disclose the fallback.
Are the Scope 2 quality criteria changing?
GHG Protocol reported on 29 July 2026 that it is still developing the revised Scope 2 rules. The consultation material is not a final standard. Until a replacement is issued, use the published Scope 2 Guidance for this check, record its version, and review the final replacement when issued.