California Climate Accountability Package: SB253, SB261, & SB252
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What is the California Climate Accountability Package, and how do SB 253 and SB 261 (SB 219), and SB 252 help the state work towards their environmental goals?
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Emissions Categories: All You Need to Know in 2026
Level
Key Topics You’ll Learn About in This Article
A breakdown of the different kinds of emissions and their impact
How to effectively monitor and measure these various types of emissions
Why it's important to take these emissions categories into consideration in your carbon reduction
If you’re into carbon accounting, odds are – you already know a lot about scope emissions, but emissions categories may be a new one for you if you have yet to read about the new proposal by ADEME to improve the precision of carbon assessments.
What are the new emissions categories presented by ADEME, and how would they help to make carbon assessments more accurate?
What Are Emissions Categories?
Carbon accounting platforms often make use of emissions categories or scope emissions in order to calculate the carbon footprint of a company, and how precise that measurement is will ultimately allow for a better understanding on how to reduce those emissions most effectively.
If the Greenhouse Gas Protocol is to move forward with ADEME’s proposal, emissions categories would replace the current functionality of scope emissions.
Before the release of this proposal by ADEME, greenhouse gas emissions were assessed through the use of scope emissions – or three previous categories of emissions that broke down the entities in which excessive emissions were being produced.
What Are Scope Emissions?
Before emissions categories were proposed, carbon accounting platforms solely relied on scope emissions, or “categories” of different emissions in order to better understand where excessive emissions and carbon activity are coming from.
All scope emissions are all different from one another – but scope emissions 1, 2, and 3 are more collectively alike to one another in comparison to scope 4 emissions.
Ultimately, carbon accounting platforms make use of scope emissions to make the process of measuring a carbon footprint easier in order to encourage those to get started on their climate journey.
As shown in the interactive flip cards below (flip cursor over screen to flip)Scope emissions are broken down into 4 total categories:
🔥 Scope 1 Emissions
Scope 1 emissions come directly from a company’s operations, including fuel combustion from company-owned vehicles and emissions tied to
industrialization production
and on-site energy use.
⚡ Scope 2 Emissions
Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from purchased energy, such as electricity used to power offices, lighting, heating, and air conditioning systems.
🚚 Scope 3 Emissions
Scope 3 emissions include all other indirect emissions outside scopes 1 and 2, such as business travel, employee commuting, and impacts across a
product’s life cycle
.
These are often the hardest to measure.
🌱 Scope 4 (Avoided Emissions)
Scope 4 emissions represent emissions avoided outside a company’s value chain, such as reductions from
remote work
.
While not required, reporting them can support sustainability and faster emissions reduction.
Scope emissions have been used by GHG, or the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, since the late 1990s – with scope 3 emissions being introduced in 2011 and scope 4 emissions more recently.
If the Greenhouse Gas Protocol is to apply this new methodology by ADEME, scope emissions would no longer serve as the most precise method of calculating carbon emissions.
What Is the Main Goal of the Emissions Categories?
The new proposal suggested by ADEME is meant to make carbon assessments more precise with emissions categories than they would be by using scope emissions.
Remember, the three main scope emissions will become obsolete from the carbon footprint methodology used by ADEME – but the Greenhouse Gas Protocol has yet to decide to implement this new method of dividing carbon emissions and calculating a carbon assessment.
The battle cards below will review, compare, and contrast the three different scope emissions:
🏭 Scope 1 Emissions
🔥 Direct emissions from owned or controlled sources
🚚 Includes emissions from fuel combustion in company vehicles and facilities
🏢 Typically easiest to measure and directly manage
⚙️ Required for emissions disclosures under most frameworks
💡 Scope 2 Emissions
⚡ Indirect emissions from purchased energy (electricity, heating, cooling, steam)
🏠 Occurs at the utility provider but tied to organizational energy use
📈 Can be reduced through energy efficiency and renewable sourcing
📊 Essential for tracking total corporate carbon footprint
🌍 Scope 3 Emissions
🚢 Indirect emissions from the value chain (upstream & downstream)
📦 Includes business travel, purchased goods, waste, transportation, and use of sold products
🧮 Most complex to calculate, but often largest share of total emissions
🔍 Critical for companies aiming for net-zero or full ESG transparency
This new method of calculating carbon assessments and emissions categories is being released alongside the most recent report published by the IPCC, or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – which states that in order to successfully reduce global warming from 2°C to 1.5°C, the world has to cut its current rate of emissions in half by the time 2030 rolls around.
Ultimately, the main goal of the new emissions categories proposed by ADEME is to help reduce emissions at a faster rate than it would be possible to do so with the traditional scope emissions – as climate change continues to grow out of hand. The proposal for emissions categories will seek to help companies reduce their emissions faster than previously intended in order to adhere to the advice provided by the IPCC.
How Will the New Emissions Categories Work and Be Divided?
The new emissions categories will seek to improve the process of organizing emissions, such as by seeking to align the practices of emissions categories with the ISO 14064 standard and returning to the original methodology developed by ADEME.
The emissions categories will be split into six different categories as opposed to original three scope emissions that were previously used:
🏭
Category 1: Direct Emissions
The first category refers to emissions directly created from stationary combustion sources or from sources owned or controlled by the entity carrying out the GHG assessment — such as the use of fossil fuels. This category also includes emissions from mobile combustion sources, physical or chemical processing, fugitive emissions, biomass, and industrial processes like leaks on company grounds. These are direct greenhouse gas emissions divided into five subcategories.
⚡
Category 2: Energy Consumption
The second category refers to indirect emissions resulting from energy consumption, such as electricity usage, power created by a nuclear power plant, renewable energy sources, or other electrical operations. It includes indirect emissions from electricity and energy consumption.
🚚
Category 3: Transportation
The third category refers to emissions created through transportation and includes five subcategories: upstream and downstream transportation of goods, employee commuting, visitor and client transport, and business travel.
📦
Category 4: Purchased Products & Services
The fourth category refers to emissions created from purchased products, similar to the previously used scope 3 emissions category. These emissions stem from raw materials and supplies often outside company jurisdiction and include purchased goods, purchased services, capital goods, waste management, and upstream leases.
🛒
Category 5: Sold Products & Investments
The fifth category refers to indirect emissions created from sold products by accounting for energy and materials used, downstream leased assets, product lifecycle impacts, and financial investments. Its four subcategories are investments, downstream leased assets, end-of-life treatment for sold products, and the use of sold goods.
🌐
Category 6: Other Indirect Emissions
The sixth and final category refers to indirect emissions created by a company that do not clearly fit into the other five categories. This category captures all remaining emissions attributable to company activities and includes one subcategory.
Benefits of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Adapting New Emissions Categories Proposed by Ademe
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol would benefit from adjusting their own scope emission models to the new emissions categories suggested by ADEME for several reasons. First off, the new emissions categories would account for all seven of the different types of greenhouse gasses: including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and nitrogen trifluoride.
The new methodology provided by ADEME will allow for six precise steps to help improve the measuring of a company’s carbon footprint – in a more meticulous and detailed manner than scope emissions will be able to. This is because the new emissions categories allow for more significant emission reductions given the framework for this type of carbon calculation is more specific than scope emissions are.
The vertical timeline below will reveal the new methodology provided by ADEME:
1. Adopt the ADEME Methodology 🧭
The new methodology provided by ADEME introduces a more meticulous, detailed framework for carbon footprint measurement than scope emissions alone.
2. Follow a Six-Step Structure 🧩
ADEME’s approach is organized into six precise steps designed to improve how a company measures and understands its emissions.
3. Use the New Emissions Categories 🗂️
The new emissions categories make carbon calculation more specific than scope emissions, helping teams pinpoint where emissions are coming from.
4. Measure More Meticulously 🔎
By being more granular, the methodology supports more careful tracking and clearer visibility across emissions sources.
5. Enable More Significant Reductions 📉
Because the framework is more specific, it supports more significant emissions reductions by guiding action where it matters most.
6. Improve Carbon Footprint Results Over Time ♻️
Ultimately, the improved measuring approach helps companies strengthen their footprint calculations and build a clearer path toward reduction progress.
The new emissions categories could benefit the Greenhouse Gas Protocol as it will require for more precise data collection, and ultimately – a better understanding of the emissions produced, which allows for more effective ways to reduce emissions and help companies that seek the expertise of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol to adhere to their emission targets with success.
In fact, many companies are required to complete a greenhouse gas assessment: such as companies employing over 500 people in metropolitan areas, companies in regions and overseas departments with over 250 employees, municipalities with over 50,000 inhabitants, and other legal entities under public law that employ over 250 people.
In other words, many people are required to complete greenhouse gas assessments – meaning that many companies could ultimately benefit from switching from the use of scope emissions to emissions categories to measure and reduce their emissions.
How These Emissions Categories Will Be Implemented in 2026 & Beyond
Despite the fact that these new emissions categories were required as of 2023, the new emissions categories are being advertised as a transition plan. Therefore, it is imperative to keep in mind the human and financial resources necessary to transition to the use of emissions categories – as this new methodology is meant to serve as a long-term approach for carbon assessments. Companies are expected to monitor and adjust their targets accordingly from new understandings of their current emissions in accordance with the new emissions categories.
In addition to this, companies are expected to follow through with significant changes to drastically reduce their emissions as a result of implementing the use of the new emissions categories – or at least commit to making an attempt to lessen the amount of emissions produced from at least 80% of their indirect emissions. Entities that fail to do so will face a hefty penalty – anywhere from €1,500 to €10,000, and €20,000 for failing to comply a second time.
Environmental legislation is getting tougher in order to adjust accordingly with the times, but with climate change becoming as serious of a threat as is – new measures like the emissions categories proposed by ADEME could help the Greenhouse Gas Protocol enforce better emission measurement, understanding, and overall emission reductions across the world.
What About Greenly?
If reading this article about the new emissions categories has made you interested in reducing your carbon emissions to further fight against climate change – Greenly can help you!
It can be hard to identify scope emissions and subsequently reduce them, but Greenly can help you take the concrete action necessary to properly determine where – click here to book a demo and get started with your climate journey today.
Greenly can help you make an environmental change for the better, starting with a carbon footprint assessment to know how much carbon emissions your company produces.
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