A coalition of 66 companies and industry groups—including Apple, Amazon, BYD, eBay, Luxshare and Salesforce—has publicly opposed a draft amendment to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Scope 2 guidance. The change would compel firms to match renewable electricity purchases to actual consumption on an hourly, grid‑region basis, replacing the current annual certificate matching. The proposal, cleared by the Scope 2 Technical Working Group, now heads to public consultation.

Proponents argue hourly, location‑specific accounting improves emissions accuracy by ensuring companies only claim clean power that could realistically have supplied their loads. Critics, however, warn that making such granularity mandatory could cripple participation in voluntary renewable‑energy programs, slowing new project financing and undermining broader decarbonisation efforts across sectors.

The signatories call on the GHGP to keep the proposed hourly matching optional, allowing firms to adopt it voluntarily while preserving the flexibility that has driven renewable‑energy procurement to date. Without that concession, they fear the revision could deter corporate clean‑energy purchases and stall progress toward net‑zero targets.

If the GHGP adopts the mandatory hourly rule, companies risk pulling back from voluntary renewable‑energy certificate markets, potentially slowing the pipeline of new clean‑power projects that many corporations currently finance.