CDP Climate Change 2022 Reporting Guidance

(C5.1c) Have your organization’s base year emissions been recalculated as result of the changes or errors reported in C5.1a and C5.1b?

Question dependencies

This question only appears if any of the “Yes” options are selected in C5.1a, or if any of the “Yes” options or “No, but we have discovered significant errors in our previous response” is selected in response to C5.1b

Change from last year

New question

Rationale

Significant changes (structural, methodological, boundary etc.) can alter a company’s emissions profile, making meaningful historical comparisons difficult. To maintain consistency over time, base year emissions must be retroactively recalculated to reflect changes in the company that would otherwise compromise the consistency and relevance of a company’s GHG emissions inventory. This question allows data users to understand whether the company has recalculated their base year emissions as a result of the changes or errors disclosed in C5.1a and b.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard states that you should recalculate your base year emissions if your organization has changed structurally through acquisitions and/or divestments, the methodology or boundary used to calculate your emissions has changed, you have found significant errors in previous calculations, or if there have been changes to your excluded sources. This is so that your base year emissions can be directly compared with your current/reporting year emissions.
• A company may, however, decide not to do this if the impact on emissions is not material or significant. It is up to each company to determine the threshold for what is considered significant or material by developing a base year recalculation policy. Organizations should apply their base year recalculation policy in a consistent manner (i.e. you should recalculate for both emissions increases and decreases).

Base year recalculation (column 1)

• Select “Yes” if your organization has recalculated your base year emissions as a result of the changes or errors disclosed in C5.1a and/or C5.1b. The basis of the recalculation should be consistent with your recalculation policy (as described in column 2) and should be reflected in the base year emissions figures you disclose in the following question, C5.2.
• Select “No, because we have not evaluated a recalculation of our base year” if you do not have a base year recalculation policy, or you have not evaluated whether the changes or errors identified in C5.1a and/or C5.1b should trigger a base year recalculation as per your policy.
• Select “No, because the impact does not meet our significance threshold” if you have a base year recalculation policy and you have evaluated that the changes or errors identified in C5.1a and/or C5.1b do not meet your policy’s significance threshold and therefore the impact on emissions is deemed to be non-material.
• Select “No, because we do not have the data yet and plan to recalculate next year” if your organization has merged with or acquired a company and you do not yet have the emissions data for the organization you have merged with or acquired. As per the GHG Protocol Corporate standard, “if it is not possible to make a recalculation in the year of the structural change (e.g. due to lack of data for an acquired company), the recalculation may be carried out the following year”. In this scenario, the emissions from the company your organization has merged with or acquired should be reported as an excluded source of emissions in C6.4a in this CDP response.

Base year emissions recalculation policy, including significance threshold (column 2)

• Describe your organization’s base year recalculation policy, and if “Yes” was selected in column 1, clearly articulate the basis and context of the recalculation.
• Ensure to include the significance threshold applied for determining base year recalculations.

Explanation of terms

• Significance threshold: As noted on page 35 of the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, a significance threshold is a “qualitative and/or quantitative criterion used to define any significant change to the data, inventory boundary, methods, or any other relevant factors. It is the responsibility of the company to determine the significance threshold that triggers base year emissions recalculation and to disclose it.”