The International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers (GIIGNL) announced the launch of a comprehensive framework for a consistent industry approach to declaring greenhouse gas neutral LNG cargoes, at a time when the practice of declaring LNG cargoes ‘carbon neutral’ is increasing, according to the company's release.
The Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) and GHG (Greenhouse Gas) Neutral Framework is part of a collective industry movement to account for and reduce GHG emissions associated with LNG, an increasingly important source of energy worldwide. Entities at every stage of the LNG life cycle can use it to assess the GHG footprints of their LNG cargoes.
The Framework promotes verified and consistent quantification of GHG emissions across the entire value chain, from extraction of natural gas, liquefaction, shipping, regasification to final consumption. Significantly, it creates a transparent practice to declare GHG neutral cargoes through an independently verified Cargo Statement which sets out both emissions and offsets.
GIIGNL promotes that emissions are avoided and reduced where possible, and if offsetting is used, it can compensate for residual emissions that cannot otherwise be reduced or avoided.
GIIGNL recognises the importance of reducing methane emissions and the Framework requires that they are reported separately in the Cargo Statement, alongside all seven Kyoto Protocol GHGs.
Use of the term “GHG Neutral” represents a full life cycle footprint across the entire cargo value chain, based as much as possible on primary data, supported by a long-term decarbonisation commitment, a delivered emission reduction plan and fully netted with high quality offsets.
The Framework does not seek to replace any established standards and methodologies for GHG emissions calculation, footprint determination and offsetting. It integrates established internationally agreed standards and methodologies and provides additional criteria for assessing and reporting GHG emissions associated with the specific case of an LNG cargo.