API unveils climate reporting template for oil and gas industry
Following the release of the industry’s Climate Action Framework this spring, the American Petroleum Institute (API) unveiled the next step in its efforts to accelerate climate solutions – a new template for individual companies in the natural gas and oil industry to more consistently report and track greenhouse gas (GHG) indicators.
While many companies have reported GHG indicators for over 20 years, the template aims to provide a consistent and uniform set of core GHG indicators to enable greater comparability in climate-related reporting. The template—developed in consultation with API members, the financial sector, policymakers, industry customers and other interested parties—includes relevant climate-related information. API expects to release additions to the template focused on GHG emissions intensity indicators later this year.
“As an industry of engineers and problem solvers, we measure and track progress in everything we do and aim to share relevant data transparently,” API President and CEO Mike Sommers said in prepared remarks to the Houston Economic Club. “Working with our members, the financial community and throughout the supply chain, this reporting template builds on our robust sustainability efforts and elevates the consistency and comparability needed for tracking climate-related progress from company to company. U.S. natural gas and oil companies were among the first businesses to develop sustainability reporting, and we continue to expand our efforts to reduce emissions to generational lows while delivering affordable and reliable energy.”
API’s template standardizes the names of indicators, units of measure and the detailed definitions for reporting boundaries to prompt comparable reporting from one company to another. The template prompts for data on Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions and consists of core GHG emissions indicators that companies can voluntarily report publicly. The template also includes indicators on a company’s efforts to mitigate GHG emissions and a place to indicate a company’s GHG targets and other climate reporting resources, as well as a section where a company can indicate its third-party verification of GHG reporting. The GHG mitigation section contains indicators on the capture of CO2 for utilization or storage, the purchase of credits for renewable energy, and total offsets retired by the company. This gives a foundational picture of a company’s work to mitigate emissions.
API’s template is the first version of a core set of GHG indicators. API and its member companies expect to update the reporting template periodically to achieve continuous improvement, including additions later this year. Companies that follow the template will likely do so in 2022 to report 2021 data, and it is expected that individual companies will continue to report additional climate-related indicators at their discretion to meet the needs of their stakeholders.
