On May 6, 2024, China’s SAC/TC119 (Refrigeration) and SAC/TC548 (Carbon Management) jointly published a call for comment on the standard draft named Requirements of the greenhouse gas emissions accounting and reporting – Part XX: Cold store operating enterprise (national standard project number 20220850-T-607, and hereinafter referred to as “the Standard Draft”). The deadline for submitting comments is June 30, 2024.
The Standard Draft is a newly formulated standard that specifies, for cold store operating enterprises, the accounting boundaries of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, measurement and monitoring requirements, accounting steps and accounting methods, data quality management, report content and format.
It is applicable to the accounting and reporting of GHG emissions of such operating enterprises. Enterprises that engage in other production activities, but have cold store as auxiliary production facilities (e.g.: as food processing plants and dairy factories etc.), can also use this standard to calculate and summarize these emissions for their cold store emissions, while calculating and summarizing the GHG emission of other production activities in accordance with the requirements of the relevant competent authorities.
The Standard Draft also contains five annexes providing data and informative contents for the emission calculation. These include, for example, the templates for reporting and data quality control plans, GWP value of common refrigerant GHGs. The main GHGs within its scope are carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). The Standard Draft does not directly adopt any international standard, but the calculation methods used are referenced from the following international documents:
- The Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, issued by the Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change (IPCC)
- The Greenhouse Gas Protocol, issued by the World Resources Institute(WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
China’s standard series on “Requirements of the greenhouse gas emissions accounting and reporting” are currently assigned under the GB/T 32151 series, in which also covers the “Requirements of the carbon emissions accounting and reporting”. Within the standard series, each part targets the carbon or GHG emission activities within specific sectors. The national TC in charge of the specific sector is, generally, the main drafter and management body of each part, but with the active collaboration and support of SAC/TC548 (Carbon Management). As China is making significant efforts to achieve its carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, more standards under this series are expected to be drafted or revised.
