Rio Tinto's emissions and the WRI/WBCSD Greenhouse Gas Protocol
The World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) developed a Greenhouse Gas Protocol to promote an internationally accepted greenhouse gas accounting and reporting standard, to assist companies in their reporting. In order to delineate direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, the Protocol defines three "scopes" for reporting purposes.
In order to be broadly consistent with the WRI/WBCSD Greenhouse Gas Protocol methodology, Rio Tinto's greenhouse gas emissions are separately reported as:
- On site emissions that Rio Tinto can exert direct management control over, such as emissions from fuel use, on site electricity generation, anode and reductant use, process emissions, land management and livestock (scope one);
- Total emissions, which are on site emissions (scope one) plus emissions associated with purchased electricity and steam (scope two). However, Rio Tinto currently excludes from total emissions the emissions associated with exported electricity and steam; and
- Other indirect emissions, associated with third party transport of our products, offsets (reduction in emissions or external sinks), indirect emissions from natural gas production and product use (scope three).
Relationship beween Rio Tinto reporting and the WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol
| GHG Protocol |
Scope 1 emissions |
Scope 2 emissions |
| Year |
Onsite emissions |
Emissions from purchased electricity & steam |
Electricity & steam export emission |
Total emissions |
| 2005 |
14.0 |
13.4 |
-0.4 |
27.1 |
| 2004 |
13.3 |
12.5 |
-0.4 |
25.3 |
We believe that total emissions currently provide the best single measure of effects, as it enables better comparisons between operations that generate electricity on site and those that purchase electricity. This measure also enables assessment of some climate change response strategies, that affect operations with significant indirect emissions from purchased electricity.
The historic use of emission factors for purchased electricity in Australia that incorporate some scope three emissions has been retained but may be reviewed during 2006 due to the recent availability of revised historic emission factors aligned with the WRI/WBCSD Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
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