GHG Protocol’s Land Sector and Removals Standard: What Businesses Need to Know
In January 2026, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol published the Land Sector and Removals Standard – a major new piece of guidance that fundamentally changes how land-based emissions and carbon removals are accounted for in corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories.
For businesses with agricultural supply chains, land-based operations, or emerging interests in carbon removals, this standard marks a significant step forward in clarity, consistency, and credibility. It also raises the bar on what “best practice” looks like when reporting land-related emissions and removals.
So, what is the purpose of the new guidance, how does it build on existing standards, and what does it mean in practice for businesses?
Why Was the Land Sector and Removals Standard Developed?
Land use sits at the heart of the climate challenge. Globally, agriculture and other land-based activities account for around 22% of net GHG emissions and the land sector represents one of the largest existing carbon sinks. At the same time, pathways consistent with 1.5°C rely on substantial increases in carbon removals over the coming decades. Up until now, corporate GHG accounting has struggled to deal with this complexity. Land-based emissions, biogenic CO₂ flows, and removals have often been:
- Inconsistently reported
- Treated as optional or supplementary
- Excluded entirely from Scope 3 inventories
The purpose of the Land Sector and Removals Standard is to close these gaps. It provides a clear, standardised framework for companies to:
- Account for emissions from land use change and land management
- Report biogenic emissions alongside fossil emissions
- Transparently account for CO₂ removals where relevant
- Improve comparability and integrity across corporate disclosures
Crucially, the standard is designed to support entity-level GHG inventories, not project-level carbon credits or offsetting claims.
How Does the Standard Build on Existing GHG Protocol Guidance?
The Land Sector and Removals Standard is a supplement to the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and Scope 3 Standard. It does not replace them; instead, it fills in long-standing methodological gaps specific to land and removals.
The key ways that the new standard builds on existing guidance include:
1. Clear Land-Sector Accounting Categories
The standard introduces a structured set of required and optional accounting categories, including:
- Land use change emissions
- Land management net biogenic CO₂ emissions
- Land management production emissions (e.g. fertiliser use, livestock)
- Biogenic product emissions
- CO₂ removals from land management and technology (where applicable)
This brings land-sector impacts into the same level of rigour as energy and industrial emissions.
2. Integration with Current Scope 1, 2, and 3 Reporting Requirements
Land-related emissions and removals are explicitly mapped to scopes, ensuring they are not treated as “outside” the corporate inventory. For many businesses, this will significantly expand the depth and quality of Scope 3 reporting, particularly for Category 1 (Purchased Goods and Services), where supply chain agricultural emissions are most likely to arise.
3. Traceability and Spatial Boundaries
One of the most important advances is the introduction of spatial boundaries and traceability requirements. Companies are required to define how closely they can trace products back to land (e.g. global average, country, sourcing region, land management unit), and to apply accounting methods that are consistent with that level of traceability. This formalises an issue that many companies have struggled with during previous land-use emissions accounting.
4. A Consistent Approach to Removals
The standard sets out clear rules for when and how CO₂ removals can be reported within a corporate inventory, including requirements around conservativeness, permanence, and reversals. This is particularly important as interest in removals grows, and scrutiny from investors and regulators increases.
5. Watch this Space: Forestry
Version 1.0 of the standard does not apply to forestry. This is a deliberate decision by the GHG Protocol, reflecting unresolved methodological challenges around separating anthropogenic and natural impacts in forest systems. Future versions may include forestry, and a formal request for information is expected later in 2026.
For now, businesses with forest-heavy value chains should be aware that further guidance is coming.
What Does This Mean for Businesses?
The implications are significant for companies with material exposure to land-based activities, including:
- Food and drink manufacturers
- Retailers and consumer goods companies
- Agriculture, bioenergy, and biomaterials producers
- Other businesses with FLAG-relevant Scope 3 emissions
- Companies exploring carbon removals as part of long-term strategies
In practical terms, the standard means:
- Greater expectations on Scope 3 quality
- Generic emission factors and high-level assumptions will increasingly be seen as insufficient for land-intensive supply chains. Expectations are shifting towards:
- Improved supplier engagement
- Better traceability
- Region- or system-specific data where feasible
- Increased scrutiny of removals claims
- The standard reinforces that removals reported in corporate inventories are not the same as offsets. Companies will need robust governance, monitoring, and disclosure to demonstrate permanence and avoid double counting.
- Closer alignment with other frameworks
- While firmly grounded in the GHG Protocol, the standard aligns closely with emerging expectations under frameworks such as SBTi FLAG, CSRD, and investor-led climate disclosures. Businesses that take early action will be better positioned as these frameworks continue to converge.
What Should Companies Do Next?
For most organisations, the immediate priority is not perfect compliance — but understanding relevance and direction of travel.
We recommend that businesses:
- Assess applicability: Identify whether land-sector activities or removals are significant within your operations or value chain, and where they sit within Scope 3.
- Review current data and assumptions: Understand how land-based emissions are currently estimated, where gaps exist, and what level of traceability is realistically achievable in the near term.
- Plan proportionate improvements: The standard allows for different levels of data maturity. The key is transparency, consistency, and a credible improvement pathway.
- Build internal understanding: Sustainability teams, procurement, and strategy functions all need to understand how land-sector accounting affects existing targets and claims, and future decision-making.
How MyCarbon Can Help?
Interpreting and applying the Land Sector and Removals Standard is not a tick-box exercise. It requires judgement, sector insight, and a clear view of what is applicable and proportionate for your business.
At MyCarbon, we support organisations to:
- Understand if and how the standard applies
- Strengthen land-related Scope 3 emissions accounting
- Improve traceability and supplier engagement strategies
- Navigate removals accounting with confidence and credibility
If you’d like to discuss what this new guidance means for your organisation, or how to take the next practical steps, we’d be happy to help and get in touch with our experts.