Ahead of COP30 and the 10th anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement, 32 leading industrial and utilities companies around the world have joined coordinators of the Let Green Gas Count campaign – Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA), American Biogas Council (ABC), European Biogas Association (EBA), eNG Coalition, Eurogas, Molecule Group, RNG Coalition, and World Biogas Association (WBA) – in calling on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) to better incentivise renewable gas uptake in its upcoming standards revision.
The GHG Protocol is the most widely used framework for greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting in the world, and is meant to provide transparency to emissions measuring, managing, and reporting.
Policymakers and regulators around the world refer to its guidance, as do 97 percent of the Fortune 500 companies. With such influence, its revision could shape how industries cut emissions for years to come.
However, the GHG Protocol has yet to respond to calls from over 200 industrial representatives in February 2025 to urgently revise standards in support of green gases.
The joint letter from industry and utility leaders, and the Let Green Gas Count campaign, aligns with the Brazilian COP Presidency’s recent pledge to quadruple production and use of renewable fuels, including gases, by 2035, and calls for further investment into these alternatives as an essential tool for achieving Net Zero.
According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) 2025 Outlook for Biogas and Biomethane, policymakers around the world have introduced over 50 new policies to support biogas uptake since 2020.
In the EU, renewable gases like biogas, biomethane (aka renewable natural gas – RNG), and e-methane are already recognised as having a vital role to play in decarbonising the economy and supporting European security of supply.
But despite consensus on their benefits, only around 5 percent of the total potential for sustainable production of biogas and biomethane is currently being used.
Call to explicitly recognise market-based tools that incentivise
The joint letter calls for the upcoming GHG Protocol revision to boost investor confidence by explicitly recognising market-based tools that incentivise producers and consumers to decarbonise.
These include, for example, certification schemes, such as guarantees of origin (GOs) or proof of sustainability certificates, which verify the environmental attributes and sustainability of energy sources.
The global biogas sector has been saying for years that we cannot wait until 2028 for clear guidance from the GHG Protocol on the use of biomethane certificates for Scope 1 emissions reporting. Now the corporates that are leading the charge in decarbonising their operations have joined our call for the need for an interim solution to be able to invest in biomethane and decarbonise today. Biogas, biomethane, and its derivatives are key to decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors; there is no time to waste in enabling the energy transition, said Charlotte Morton OBE, Chief Executive of World Biogas Association (WBA), a coordinator of the Let Green Gas Count campaign.
32 industry leaders from across different industries, including the steel, spirits and wine, and heavy-duty trucks industry, are therefore calling on the GHG Protocol to:
- Issue an interim statement recognising the need for robust market-based instruments;
- Ensure that the review not only stays on track for completion during 2028 at the latest, but is fast-tracked to reduce its impact on the market.
Our company strongly believes that biomethane can play a big part in decarbonizing steel and energy-intensive industries. Before this is the case, some hurdles need to be taken down. Biomethane not being supported in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol is one of them. As decarbonization projects for hard-to-abate industries are long and complex, it is essential that enabling conditions for these projects are brought into place as soon as possible. That will enable our company to reach its decarbonization goals and help the world live up to the Paris Agreement, said Albert Kassies, Director of New Energy at Tata Steel Nederland, one of Europe’s biggest steel manufacturers and part of the global Tata Steel Group.
Sector leaders have stressed that, unchanged, the GHG Protocol risks holding back industries where electrification is not technically feasible, not cost-effective, or faces other bottlenecks such as grid congestion from meeting their climate goals.
Energy efficiency and electrification are central to our sustainability strategy. At the same time, we are exploring renewable energy solutions, with biomethane playing a key role, both as a renewable source and a way to close the loop by valorizing our by-products. Where direct biomethane delivery isn’t efficient, we will rely on Renewable Gas Guarantees of Origin (RGGOs) to ensure traceability and credibility. Clear guidance from the GHG Protocol will be essential to scale this approach globally, said Maria Pia De Caro, EVP, Integrated Operations and S&R of Pernod Ricard, a global leader in the spirits and wine industry.
The truck manufacturing industry has also warned that biomethane has a crucial role to play in cutting emissions both in production and in heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) on the road.
When the GHG Protocol recognizes renewable gas certificates, the market for renewable gases can grow more quickly, which will speed up the decarbonization of industrial operations and heavy truck transports, said Lars Mårtensson, Environmental Director at Volvo Trucks, a leading global truck-maker.
