Global GHG emissions standardization for transportation chains: Building on the achieved, moving into the future

Kurzfassung

With rising pressure to improve the efficiency of supply chains and to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, many efforts have been made to develop standards and tools for calculating the GHG emissions along transportation chains. Yet, the use and comparative analysis of these resources (COFRET 2012a ,2012b ,2014a ) has revealed shortcomings – so far, there is no single standard in place that covers all transportation modes and all elements of a transportation chain and that allows for a seamless emission calculation from shipper to consignee on a globally comparable basis. The equivalent of the International Financial Reporting Standard for greenhouse gas emissions does not yet exist. A further development of standards and associated calculations is therefore needed, which builds on a consolidation of industry-tested and -approved approaches, combined with gathered experiences with these approaches. To help define the path towards the development of a truly consistent international standard, industry experts were convened through an International Workshop Agreement (IWA) process, created under the International Standards Organization (ISO). This presentation summarizes the work and findings of the IWA, including an overview of which existing resources lend themselves best as the basis for future developments, which gaps need to be addressed, and how a framework for a next generation of calculation standardization should be developed.