Climate & Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Base Year Recalculation
The GHG Protocol practice of restating base year emissions when structural or methodological changes break comparability, governed by a disclosed recalculation policy and significance threshold.
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The adjustment of previously reported base year emissions to preserve like-for-like comparison over time. Under the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, companies must develop a base year emissions recalculation policy, disclose the basis and context of any recalculations, and state any "significance threshold" — a qualitative or quantitative criterion defining what change triggers restatement (for example 5% or 10% of base year emissions).
References
Requirement to develop and disclose a recalculation policy and significance threshold; triggers (structural changes, methodology, errors) and exclusions (organic growth, outsourcing under Scope 2/3); whole-year timing rule.
Recalculation categories; significance threshold concept; inventory vs target base year.
Overview
What it means
Recalculation is triggered by changes that alter what is measured rather than real-world performance: acquisitions and divestments, organisational boundary changes, methodology upgrades and significant error corrections. It is explicitly not for changes reflecting actual business activity — organic growth, real efficiency gains or decarbonisation progress must show up as performance, not as moving baselines.
Recalculations for structural changes are made for the entire year, and no recalculation is made for facilities that did not exist in the base year.
How it is used
Companies publish recalculation policies (often aligned also with SBTi requirements) and apply them when restating inventories; verifiers confirm adherence to the stated threshold. Intensity metrics are used alongside absolute figures where growth complicates comparisons.
Why it matters
Target integrity depends on it: without disciplined re-baselining, year-on-year comparisons and reduction targets become meaningless — and with sloppy re-baselining, companies can quietly erase emissions growth from their track record.
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