Scope 2 emissions · two methods, three rulebooks
Scope 2 emissions:
UK reporting
Scope 2 emissions come from generating the electricity, heat, steam and cooling a company buys, and the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance counts them two ways.
UK SRS S2 requires the location-based figure and only permits the market-based one; SECR’s regulations name no method at all.
For a UK site in 2026 the location-based factor is 0.13096 kgCO2e per kWh, and a REGO-backed tariff does not move it.
The basics
What Scope 2 covers
Scope 2 is the indirect emissions from the generation of electricity, steam, heat and cooling that a company purchases or acquires and then consumes.
Read the provisions and qualifications
The emissions happen somewhere else — at a power station, a heat plant or a chilled-water network — but they sit in your inventory because your demand caused them.
The Corporate Standard makes Scope 1 and Scope 2 the minimum every inventory reports, and the Scope 2 Guidance, published in 2015, is an amendment to it.
People often search for “scope 1 and scope 2 emissions” together because energy straddles the line: a company that electrifies its fleet moves emissions from Scope 1 into Scope 2, and the two are best read side by side, as the Scope 1, 2 and 3 reference does.
Heat, steam and cooling count as much as electricity; a company on a district heating network has Scope 2 even if it buys no power.
Grid losses and upstream fuel emissions are covered on the Scope 3 emissions page, under category 3.
Module 01 / 04
Definition
Module 02 / 04
Generation boundary
Module 03 / 04
Inventory minimum
Module 04 / 04
Scope 1 comparison
Tables and tools
Generating the energy you buy is Scope 2.
Losing some of it on the wires, and producing the fuel the power station burned, is Scope 3.
Two methods
Location-based and market-based, side by side
| Location-based | Market-based | |
|---|---|---|
| What it reflects | The grid you are connected to | The energy you contracted for |
| Factor used | The grid average for the area and period | Supplier-specific rates, certificates, PPAs; a residual mix for the rest |
| Effect of buying renewables | None | Can lower the figure, if the instruments meet the Quality Criteria |
| UK source of the factor | DESNZ UK electricity factor (generated) | Supplier disclosure, REGOs, contracts, residual mix |
| UK SRS S2 | Required | Permitted |
When the Guidance wants both
The Scope 2 Guidance says companies with any operations in markets providing product- or supplier-specific data in the form of contractual instruments shall report Scope 2 in two ways and label each.
Where a company operates only in markets without such instruments, one location-based result is reported.
The UK, with REGOs and supplier fuel mix disclosure, is a contractual-instrument market in practice.
Two readings the Guidance rules out
The two totals “should not be viewed as ‘gross/net’”, because net implies offsets have been applied (§7.4.2).
And the market-based method is not a renewables-only method: it should include instruments carrying fossil-fuel or mixed-resource factors too.
Module 01 / 04
When both apply
Module 02 / 04
One-method markets
Module 03 / 04
UK instruments
Module 04 / 04
Separate results
Calculator
Your Scope 2 from your bills
Enter the kWh you used and the year you used it in.
The calculator applies the DESNZ generation factor for that year to give location-based Scope 2, separates the grid losses into Scope 3, and shows how much of a year-on-year change the factor alone would make.
If your supplier discloses its own factor, or you buy a tariff backed by certificates, enter that factor for a market-based line beside it.
The location-based figure does not move when you do; that is the point of it.
For which year’s set to use with a split financial year, see GHG conversion factors.
Scope 2 calculator · UK grid electricity
Enter a kWh figure to see the emissions.
Every factor used is shown beside its result.
Factors: DESNZ methodology papers, Table 9 (2025 set on 2023 data; 2026 set on 2025 data).
Scope split: 2026 paper ¶¶3.1 and 3.9.
Nothing you enter is stored or sent.
The UK instruments
The grid factor, REGOs and the residual mix
For UK sites the location-based factor is the UK electricity factor in the government conversion factors.
Read the provisions and qualifications
Table 9 of the 2026 methodology paper gives 0.13096 kgCO2e per kWh for electricity generated, including imports, against 0.17700 in the 2025 set.
DESNZ attributes most of that 26% fall to the grid getting cleaner and 6 to 7 percentage points to a change of method: the factor now lags its publication year by one year, not two.
The UK’s contractual instruments are Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin.
Ofgem, which runs the scheme, issues one REGO per megawatt hour of eligible renewable output, says their primary use is suppliers’ fuel mix disclosure, and says they can be traded with or without the electricity they were issued for.
That last point is why a REGO-backed tariff is a market-based claim and never a location-based one.
The market-based method needs a residual mix for consumption no instrument covers, and the GHG Protocol’s eighth Quality Criterion asks that one be made available, or its absence disclosed.
DESNZ’s Fuel Mix Disclosure data for 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 sets out a residual fuel mix of 65.3% natural gas and 11.4% coal, against a UK fuel mix that is 48.0% renewables.
The same table puts the CO2 intensity of UK generation in 2025 at 147 g/kWh — an operational figure for UK generators, not a reporting factor.
The Scope 2 Guidance itself records the historic UK position at §7.4: “the prevailing guidance from the UK government is to report using the locational-based approach, in part due to concerns regarding subsidy levels for renewables and double counting.”
Do not confuse the annual factor with live intensity: NESO’s Carbon Intensity service forecasts Great Britain’s grid half-hour by half-hour, which helps time demand and is not the reporting factor.
Module 01 / 04
Location-based factor
Module 02 / 04
2026 factor
Module 03 / 04
Methodology change
Module 04 / 04
REGOs
What the rules ask
SECR, UK SRS S2 and the GHG Protocol ask different questions
The GHG Protocol is a voluntary accounting standard; SECR is company law with guidance beside it; UK SRS S2 is a disclosure standard that bites when a regulator or the law brings an entity into it.
Read the provisions and qualifications
SECR. Quoted companies report emissions from “the purchase of electricity, heat, steam or cooling by the company for its own use” under ¶15(3) of Part 7; large unquoted companies and LLPs report emissions from purchased electricity under ¶20D(2) of Part 7A.
Neither paragraph names a method.
The March 2019 Environmental Reporting Guidelines encourage “location-based grid average emission factors” and say time-specific, for example hour-by-hour, grid factors “should be used” where available.
Where a company wants to show a reduced figure from power purchase agreements or REGOs, the guidelines recommend presenting the market-based figure “alongside the ‘location based’ grid-average figures”, and saying whether the renewable energy is “additional, subsidised and supplied directly”.
The templates are, in the guidelines’ own words, guidance and “not compulsory”.
UK SRS S2. Paragraph 29(a)(v) requires an entity to “disclose its location based Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions” and to give information about contractual instruments needed to understand them; ¶B30 adds, for the avoidance of doubt, that the instrument information is needed only where instruments exist and inform users.
Paragraph B31 says an entity “might” also disclose market-based Scope 2.
A company can comply with UK SRS S2 by publishing one location-based figure; it cannot comply by publishing only a market-based one.
For listed companies the FCA’s final rules in PS26/19 bring UK SRS S2 in on a comply-or-explain basis for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027; the FCA’s transitional reliefs cover Scope 3 and the wider S1 disclosures, not Scope 2.
The SECR requirements and UK SRS S2 references cover the rest of each regime.
Module 01 / 04
Different instruments
Module 02 / 04
SECR disclosures
Module 03 / 04
Method choice
Module 04 / 04
Guidance
Tables and tools
| Rulebook | Location-based | Market-based |
|---|---|---|
| GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance | Required | Required where contractual data exists |
| UK SRS S2 | Required | Permitted |
| SECR regulations | No method named | No method named |
| SECR guidance (2019) | Encouraged; mandatory row in the example | Alongside, if renewables are reflected; optional row |
Worked example
One office, laid out the way SECR asks
An office uses 500,000 kWh of grid electricity in calendar 2026 and in 2025.
Assumed for the example, not official figures: Scope 1 of 60.00 tCO2e from 320,000 kWh of gas and fleet fuel, revenue of £12 million in both years, and from 1 January 2026 a tariff the supplier discloses as 100% REGO-backed at 0 kgCO2e per kWh.
| Line in the report | 2026 | 2025 (comparative) |
|---|---|---|
| Energy used, kWh [mandatory] | 820,000 | 820,000 |
| Scope 1: gas and transport fuel, tCO2e [mandatory] | 60.00 | 60.00 |
| Scope 2: purchased electricity, location-based, tCO2e [mandatory] | 65.48 (500,000 × 0.13096) | 88.50 (500,000 × 0.17700) |
| Total gross Scope 1 and 2, tCO2e [mandatory] | 125.48 | 148.50 |
| Intensity: tCO2e gross per £100,000 revenue [mandatory] | 1.05 (125.48 ÷ 120) | 1.24 (148.50 ÷ 120) |
| Scope 2: market-based, tCO2e [optional] | 0.00 (500,000 × 0) | Not reported |
| Scope 3: grid losses, tCO2e [optional] | 6.50 (500,000 × 0.01299) | 9.27 (500,000 × 0.01853) |
Location-based Scope 2 fell by 23.02 tCO2e with no change in use, because the 2026 factor is lower — mostly a cleaner grid, partly the new one-year lag.
The methodology note says so, or the comparative is restated on the new basis.
The market-based line reflects a contract, not a change in the grid, and the guidelines ask whether that renewable supply is additional, subsidised or supplied directly.
Under the GHG Protocol this company reports both 65.48 and 0.00, because it holds contractual instruments; the instruments must meet the Quality Criteria.
Under UK SRS S2 it reports 65.48 location-based and describes the REGO-backed tariff, because the instrument exists and informs the figure; the 0.00 is optional.
The SECR report template shows the full layout, and the SECR overview who has to file it.
Module 01 / 04
Factor movement
Module 02 / 04
Comparative note
Module 03 / 04
Contract versus grid
Module 04 / 04
Two reported figures
What is changing
The Scope 2 revision, and what it did not decide
GHG Protocol consulted on revising the Scope 2 Guidance from 20 October 2025 to 31 January 2026, drawing nearly 1,100 responses from 56 countries.
Read the provisions and qualifications
The proposals would have required large organisations to match certificates to consumption hour by hour and to show instruments were deliverable to where the electricity was used.
The executive summary of the feedback, published on 29 July 2026, heads its finding “Low support for hourly matching and deliverability as proposed”, with support lowest among companies and industry groups.
The Independent Standards Board then “called for further work on multiple market-based method reporting approaches”.
Hourly matching has not been adopted, and a page saying it is required is wrong.
The same day GHG Protocol announced that it and ISO would combine their corporate standards, Scope 2 included, into a single standard.
Its Standard Development Plan estimates a consultation in Q2 2027 and publication in Q4 2028, and says the timeline may change.
Until then the 2015 Guidance is the text in use; the GHG Protocol reference tracks the wider revision.
Module 01 / 04
Consultation
Module 02 / 04
Proposals
Module 03 / 04
Feedback
Module 04 / 04
Further work
Tables and tools
- 2015Scope 2 Guidance
Two methods; dual reporting where contractual data exists.
- 20 Oct 2025 – 31 Jan 2026Public consultation
Nearly 1,100 responses from 56 countries.
- 29 Jul 2026Feedback summary
Low support for hourly matching and deliverability as proposed.
- Q2 2027 (est.)Consolidated draft
One corporate standard with ISO, for consultation.
- Q4 2028 (est.)Revised standard
Estimated publication; guidance later.
Pitfalls
Scope 2 mistakes that reach published reports
| Mistake | What to do instead | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Only a market-based figure under UK SRS S2 | Disclose location-based; add market-based if it helps | UK SRS S2 ¶B30 |
| “UK SRS S2 requires dual reporting” | Location-based required, market-based permitted; dual reporting is the GHG Protocol’s rule | ¶¶29(a)(v), B31 |
| Calling the market-based total “net” Scope 2 | Two methods, not gross and net | Scope 2 Guidance §7.4.2 |
| Grid losses counted in Scope 2 | Losses in Scope 3, category 3 | DESNZ ¶¶3.1, 3.9 |
| The 2025→2026 fall credited to efficiency | Explain the factor change before claiming a reduction | Major changes report, row 17 |
| The factor for the year you publish | The set for the year the consumption falls in | DESNZ ¶1.10 |
| The UK factor for overseas sites | The grid factor of the country where the energy is used | DESNZ Section 10 |
| Heat, steam and cooling left out | Scope 2 covers all purchased energy | Scope 2 Guidance; Sch 7 ¶15(3) |
A tool that produces only one of the two figures has made a method choice on your behalf; that is worth checking when comparing carbon accounting software.
How Scope 2 fits a whole inventory, boundary first, is in the carbon accounting reference.
Module 01 / 02
One-number tool
Module 02 / 02
Whole inventory
Test yourself
Six Scope 2 claims, true or false
The false statements here are the ones we see most in published reports and vendor material.
Most come from carrying the GHG Protocol’s dual-reporting rule into UK SRS S2, or from treating a certificate as if it changed the grid.
Each answer names the paragraph that settles it.
Scope 2: true or false?
UK SRS S2 requires both a location-based and a market-based Scope 2 figure.
A company may comply with UK SRS S2 by publishing only a market-based figure.
Grid transmission and distribution losses belong in Scope 2.
The market-based method only deals with renewable electricity.
Hourly matching of certificates is now required by the GHG Protocol.
Heat bought from a district heating network is Scope 2.
0 of 6 answered.
Nothing you choose is stored or sent.
Before you rely on it
A calculator gives a figure, not a verdict
The right Scope 2 answer can turn on things a form cannot see: how the group is structured, which contracts the instruments sit under, and what changed since the last period.
Members can put their own figures to the member agent, which answers from the same sourced corpus as this page and says where it is unsure.
A reading and preparation sequence
scope 2 emissions: from the question to the evidence
- Step 0101
Purchased energy
Scope 2 is the indirect emissions from the generation of electricity, steam, heat and cooling that a company purchases or acquires and then consumes.Read the detail. - Step 0202
Two accounting methods
When the Guidance wants both Read the detail. - Step 0303
UK electricity factors
For UK sites the location-based factor is the UK electricity factor in the government conversion factors.Read the detail. - Step 0404
Standards and law
The GHG Protocol is a voluntary accounting standard; SECR is company law with guidance beside it; UK SRS S2 is a disclosure standard that bites when a regulator or the law brings an entity into it.Read the detail. - Step 0505
Worked comparison
Location-based Scope 2 fell by 23.02 tCO2e with no change in use, because the 2026 factor is lower — mostly a cleaner grid, partly the new one-year lag.Read the detail. - Step 0606
Revision status
GHG Protocol consulted on revising the Scope 2 Guidance from 20 October 2025 to 31 January 2026, drawing nearly 1,100 responses from 56 countries.Read the detail. - Step 0707
Method checks
A tool that produces only one of the two figures has made a method choice on your behalf; that is worth checking when comparing carbon accounting software.Read the detail.
Dates, with their status
The relevant dates, drawn in order
- 200401
Revised Corporate Standard
The accounting standard fixes the organisational boundary, principles and reporting method. A disclosure framework can specify an edition. - 201102
Scope 3 Standard
The corporate value-chain standard supplies the fifteen-category taxonomy. UK SRS S2 references this edition. - January 201503
Scope 2 Guidance
The guidance adds contractual-instrument quality criteria and the location-based and market-based reporting rules. - 29 July 202604
Consolidated development plan
The owner sets out the GHG Protocol–ISO development programme. This plan does not itself replace the operative standards. - Q2 2027 · estimated05
Draft consultation
The plan estimates consultation on a consolidated draft in Q2 2027. This is an estimated programme date, not an effective date. - Q4 2028 · estimated06
Revised standard publication
Publication is estimated for Q4 2028. Pilot testing could extend the timetable; supporting guidance is expected later on a separate timetable.
Continue your research
Related reporting guides, one question at a time
Frequently asked
Scope 2 emissions, answered
What are scope 2 emissions?
Scope 2 emissions are the indirect greenhouse gas emissions from the generation of electricity, steam, heat and cooling a company buys or acquires and then consumes.
The emissions happen at a power station or heat plant, but they are counted by the company whose demand caused them.
The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard requires every inventory to report at least Scope 1 and Scope 2.
What is the difference between scope 1 and 2 emissions?
Scope 1 is what the company releases from sources it owns or controls — its boilers, vehicles, processes and refrigerant leaks.
Scope 2 is the emissions from generating the energy it buys.
A company that swaps gas boilers for heat pumps moves emissions from Scope 1 into Scope 2.
What is the difference between location-based and market-based scope 2?
The location-based method multiplies consumption by the average emission intensity of the grid you draw from.
The market-based method uses the factors carried by the contracts and certificates you hold — a supplier-specific rate, a power purchase agreement, REGOs — with a residual mix for anything uncovered.
The first reflects where you are; the second reflects what you chose to buy.
Does UK SRS S2 require market-based scope 2?
No. UK SRS S2 paragraph 29(a)(v) requires location-based Scope 2 and information about contractual instruments where that information is needed to understand the figure.
Paragraph B31 says an entity might also disclose market-based Scope 2. It does not require dual reporting.
Am I required to report my emissions?
Only if a regime reaches you.
SECR requires every quoted company, and every large unquoted company and LLP, to report emissions from purchased electricity — quoted companies also heat, steam and cooling — in the directors’ report.
Listed companies in five UK Listing Rules categories report against UK SRS S2 on a comply-or-explain basis for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027.
Anyone else reports Scope 2 voluntarily or because a customer asks.
How do I show scope 2 in a SECR report?
The regulations name no method.
The example report in the government’s Environmental Reporting Guidelines puts location-based Scope 2 in a mandatory row and market-based in an optional row, and the guidelines encourage location-based grid factors.
Show the kWh behind it, the total with Scope 1, at least one intensity ratio and last year’s figures.
What UK electricity factor should I use for scope 2?
For UK sites on the location-based method, the generation factor from the government conversion factors for the year your consumption mostly falls in: 0.13096 kgCO2e per kWh in the 2026 set, 0.17700 in the 2025 set.
Grid losses have a separate factor and belong in Scope 3.
Do REGOs make my electricity zero-emission?
Only under the market-based method, and only if the instruments meet the GHG Protocol’s Scope 2 Quality Criteria.
Under the location-based method a REGO changes nothing.
Because UK SRS S2 requires the location-based figure, REGOs never reduce the number it asks for.
Is market-based scope 2 the same as net scope 2?
No. The Scope 2 Guidance says the two method totals should not be viewed as gross and net, because a net figure implies offsets have been applied.
Market-based is a different method of attribution, not a deduction.
Is the GHG Protocol changing scope 2?
Not yet.
A consultation on revising the 2015 Guidance ran from 20 October 2025 to 31 January 2026.
GHG Protocol’s own summary heads its findings “Low support for hourly matching and deliverability as proposed”, and the Independent Standards Board called for further work.
Scope 2 is being folded into one corporate standard with ISO, with a consultation estimated for Q2 2027 and publication for Q4 2028.
What is the difference between scope 2 and scope 3 emissions?
Scope 2 is the generation of the energy you buy and use.
Scope 3 is every other indirect emission in the value chain.
Some energy emissions are Scope 3: the electricity lost on the grid and the upstream emissions of producing the fuels power stations burn sit in category 3, fuel- and energy-related activities.
Sources
Primary sources
Every figure, date and status on this page traces to the instrument’s owner.
Secondary commentary is never the source for a number.
- GHG ProtocolScope 2 Guidance (2015), an amendment to the Corporate Standard
The two methods, the dual-reporting condition, the Quality Criteria, and the gross/net warning.
- GHG ProtocolCorporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
Scope 1 and Scope 2 as the required minimum.
- Department for Business and TradeUK SRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures, ¶29(a)(v), ¶¶B30–B31
Location-based required; contractual-instrument information where it informs users; market-based permitted.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2008/410 Schedule 7 Part 7, ¶15(3)
Quoted companies: emissions from purchased electricity, heat, steam or cooling.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2008/410 Schedule 7 Part 7A, ¶20D(2)
Unquoted companies and LLPs: emissions from purchased electricity.
- GOV.UK (DESNZ, Defra, BEIS)Environmental Reporting Guidelines, including SECR requirements
The guidance page, last updated 29 March 2019.
- HM GovernmentEnvironmental Reporting Guidelines (PDF), “Reporting renewable energy” and the example reports
Dual reporting encouraged where renewables are reflected; location-based grid factors encouraged; the templates.
- DESNZ (GOV.UK)Greenhouse gas reporting: conversion factors 2026
The current set, published 11 June 2026.
- DESNZ2026 conversion factors methodology paper, Table 9 and ¶¶1.10, 3.1, 3.9
0.13096 generated (Scope 2), 0.01299 losses (Scope 3), the activity-year rule.
- DESNZ2026 conversion factors: major changes report, row 17
The −26% and how much of it is method.
- OfgemRenewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO)
One certificate per MWh; the primary use is fuel mix disclosure; tradeable with or without the electricity.
- DESNZFuel Mix Disclosure data table 2026
The residual fuel mix for 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026.
- GHG ProtocolScope 2 Public Consultation Feedback Summary: Executive Summary (29 July 2026)
“Low support for hourly matching and deliverability as proposed.”
- GHG ProtocolGHG Protocol announces key standard development updates (29 July 2026)
The ISO partnership and the consolidated corporate standard.
- GHG ProtocolConsolidated Corporate Standard — Standard Development Plan v2.0, §9
Consultation estimated Q2 2027; publication estimated Q4 2028.
- NESOCarbon Intensity API
Live half-hourly GB grid intensity — a different number from the reporting factor.