What's in an Emissions Report?
- The sustain:able team
- Oct 1
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 17
An emissions report isn’t just another bit of paperwork - it’s a key tool for showing how seriously a business takes its environmental impact and sustainability responsibilities.
So what's actually inside one of these reports, and what does it mean in practice?
Forward-looking or backward-looking?
There are two main kinds of emissions reports we typically produce:
GHG forecasts for proposed developments
Greenhouse gas inventories for operating sites.
Forecast for Proposed Developments
This type of report typically forms part of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and estimates the future emissions that a new project or expansion is expected to generate across its lifetime. It can also be done as a standalone piece of work for a company who wants to understand what their impacts are likely to be.
Forecasting covers expected emissions from construction, drilling, production, transport and other key activities, usually expressed as tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year. The analysis draws on project plans, technology choices, and assumptions about operating routines and energy use.
Such reporting helps decision-makers, regulators and stakeholders assess environmental risks, compare project alternatives, the cumulative impacts in relation to other current and proposed projects, and consider mitigation or offset measures before approval. Results are commonly used for benchmarking of developments by regulators.
Greenhouse Gas Inventory
A GHG inventory is a factual report of emissions from existing operations, based on measured and calculated releases over a specific period (typically annually).
It tracks actual emissions across all relevant sources, such as fuel combustion, flaring, venting, fugitive leaks and electricity usage, using accepted protocols and standards like the GHG Protocol, ISO 14064-1, or national regulations.
Inventories enable companies and regulators to benchmark performance, set reduction targets, and monitor the effectiveness of mitigation strategies year-on-year.
Both types of reports play a crucial role in responsible project planning and transparent operational management in the energy sector.
Breaking Down an Emissions Report
At the heart of every emissions report, whether a forecast or inventory, are a few essentials:
Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions: You’ll see figures for the company’s direct emissions (like what’s emitted by engines or generators on site), indirect emissions from imported energy (usually electricity that has been purchased), and the wider GHG emissions footprint linked to suppliers and product use. These are calculated using recognised methods such as the GHG Protocol, ISO 14064, and sector guidance.
How numbers are crunched: Emission factors and calculation methods must be clearly explained, with details on all significant direct greenhouse gases – for oil and gas operations, this is usually carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, but other gases can be important, such as refrigerants. Reports need to show how estimates are made, and the standards used to get these numbers.
What’s included and what’s not: It’s critical to define the scope and boundaries that the emissions report relates to because that dictates how the calculations are done and if equity ownership needs to be factored in when presenting the numbers. There are specific methodologies outlined in the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064, but this can get quite complicated for some oil and gas companies that have complex asset ownership and joint venture structures.
It is critical for companies to spell out which operations, sites or partnerships are covered in the numbers to help ensure everything is transparent. It also makes it easier to compare between companies or over time.
New Scope 3 Requirements After Finch – UK focus but expanding to other jurisdictions
Recent changes, driven in the UK by the Finch Supreme Court decision in 2024, and new government guidance, mean oil and gas companies in the UK must now give far greater attention to Scope 3 emissions, particularly in Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for project applications.
Similar judgements are now being made in other jurisdictions (LINK), most recently in South Africa (LINK) and Norway via the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Court (LINK)
Scope 3 emissions cover greenhouse gases that are released outside a company’s direct operations, particularly those resulting from the final use of extracted oil and gas, like when fuels are burned by end users, for example, in vehicles as petrol and diesel, or to power factory processes, or in power stations to generate electricity.
The Supreme Court’s Finch ruling established that these downstream emissions must be treated as an indirect but real impact of oil and gas developments, making it legally necessary to include them in EIAs for both offshore and onshore projects.
Under the June 2025 guidance issued by OPRED, companies need to:
Quantify Scope 3 Category 11 “use of sold product” downstream emissions at a minimum – this needs to be based on the development’s 3P or P10 “high” case estimate of total oil and gas that is expected to be produced over the project's full lifetime. We can generate scenarios that look at the emissions impact of various products generated from the refined oil (e.g. proportion of diesel, petrol, aviation fuel, etc.), but one scenario must assume that all produced hydrocarbons are eventually burned.
Include other relevant Scope 3 emissions - most companies already include forecasts for other Scope 3 operational emissions, such as vessel/vehicle use and contractor activities such as drilling. The updated OPRED guidance reinforces that this data is expected.
Compare the forecast project emissions to current and future global and UK carbon budgets for context and cumulative impact - this is a tricky one because a commonly accepted industry standard or methodology is still to be developed as projects work through the EIA approvals process. The OPRED guidance recommends comparison to global and national carbon budgets to help set the context for the proposed project and help decision-makers understand how significant the emissions for the proposed project are when accounting for current and future activities.
Mitigation of Scope 3 emissions - OPRED acknowledge in the updated guidance that mitigation options for Scope 3 emissions are limited, especially for Category 11 “use of sold product”. Most oil and gas producers sell the oil and/or gas at the refinery gate and therefore don’t have any control over how it is refined or used. And the carbon credit market is still lacking in providing credits that are consistently high-quality and durable, and so are not currently a suitable mitigation option for this purpose. But companies should demonstrate they are working to reduce emissions across the project in all areas where they have greater control and influence.
The substitution argument is not an excuse for not presenting the full project emissions - arguing that a proposed project will directly reduce the volume of hydrocarbons produced elsewhere in the world is simply too difficult to prove. The revised OPRED guidance allows operators to include information on demand and supply and how the proposed project fits into that picture, but an emissions forecast for the whole project, including Category 11 “use of sold product”, must be presented in full.
These changes mean Scope 3 reporting is more prominent, complex, and central to project approval decisions, reflecting the bigger regulatory and legal risks post-Finch.
Keep on TRACC…
Greenhouse gas emissions accounting is founded on five key principles:
Transparency, clearly documenting methods, assumptions and data for a robust audit trail
Relevance, ensuring that reported emissions reflect actual company activities and decision-making needs
Accuracy, striving to quantify emissions as precisely as possible, minimising uncertainty in the data
Completeness, capturing all significant sources and activities within set boundaries while disclosing any exclusions
Consistency, applying uniform accounting approaches over time for reliable comparisons
These principles enable organisations to produce GHG inventories and reports that are robust, credible, and helpful for informing climate risks and meeting regulatory requirements.
Why Good Practice Matters
Following industry guidance (such as IPIECA, API and GHG Protocol) is more than a box-ticking exercise. It helps ensure that emissions reports are clear, honest, and useful for anyone relying on this information to make decisions. Open, methodical reporting is what turns numbers into real-world action and improvements.
Case Studies
References
GHG Protocol – Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard: https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/standards/ghg-protocol-revised.pdf
OPRED Supplementary Guidance on assessing affects of downstream scope 3 emissions on climate: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6853fa3d1203c00468ba2b15/Supplementary_guidance_-_Effects_of_Scope_3_Emissions.pdf
ISO 14064 standard - Specification with guidance at the organization level for quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals: https://www.iso.org/standard/66453.html