There is one special data update outside the cadence of our quarterly Data Update Policy to start the year 2023 with the latest and most up-to-date conversion factors, effective from January 31st, 2023. In the same update, we are also fixing some minor errors which are all outlined below.
Territory-specific updates
Changes affecting ALL 🌏 data
Type of Change | Module / | Description | Expected Impact |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Waste (Glass) | Glass waste emission factor updated to align with a global methodology | Measured emissions might decrease up to 14%. |
Minor | Calculation Model Update | Events (Virtual)
*No longer active on present version of Plan A | Upgrades to the model determining the energy use of personal computers | Measured energy-related emissions might decrease up to 20%. |
Medium | Emission Factor Update | Energy (Work From Home) | Emission factor changed to align with a global model that excludes geographies that have a country-specific factor. | Measured emissions Emissions can be expected to decrease by up to 37%. |
Medium | Threshold Update | Business Travel | Changes in short and long-travel thresholds for car, train and plane trips affect short- and long-haul-based business trip emissions. These thresholds are generated from internal data and they are no longer geographically specific. The use of kilometre or destination-origin methods is encouraged over using the unit-based method due to improved accuracy. | Thresholds in km: Train: 200 Which values are used for calculations? Short train: 158 Short car: 10 Short flight: 678 |
Changes affecting Swiss🇨🇭market data
Type of Change | Module / | Description | Expected Impact |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Electricity | Update to electricity grid factor due to Switzerland adding more renewable capacity to its grid. | Measured emissions Emissions can be expected to decrease by up to 14%. |
Medium | Emission Factor Update | Vehicle Fleet | Vehicle fuel emission factors have been updated to align with COPERT and Switzerland’s Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU). | Measured emissions may decrease as much as 32%. |
Minor | Calculation Model Update | Waste (Paper) | Paper waste emissions might rise some, but will remain very small due to the high paper recycling rate in Switzerland. | Small increase in emissions expected. |
Changes affecting UK 🇬🇧 market data
Type of Change | Module / | Description | Expected Impact |
Medium | Emission Factor Update | Electricity | Update to electricity grid factor due to the UK adding more renewable capacity to its grid. Changes mainly due to the latest release of the emission factors published by the “Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy”. | Measured emissions may decrease as much as 30%. |
Minor | Calculation Model Update | Waste | Slight increase in the waste emission factors due to more accuracy in the waste model. | Small increase in emissions expected. |
Changes affecting French 🇫🇷 market data
Type of Change | Module / | Description | Expected Impact |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Electricity | Update to due to the latest released emission factors from the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME). | Measured emissions may decrease as much as 12% compared to 2022 levels. |
Medium | Emission Factor Update | Heating | Update to due to the latest released emission factors from the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME). | Measured emissions may decrease as much as 49% compared to 2022 levels. |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Cloud Server Services
*Now part of Purchased Goods and Services as per GHG Protocol. | Slight update of emission factor. | Measured emissions can be expected to increase by up to 2%. |
Medium | Emission Factor Update | Mobile Combustion | Fuel emissions (for petrol, diesel and unknown fuels) can increase by +17% on average | Measured emissions can increase by 17% on average. |
Medium | Emission Factor Update | Waste | Emission factors have been corrected to fit a standardised model across Plan A. | Plastic, residual, and paper waste emissions may increase, while glass waste emissions may decrease somewhat. |
Medium | Emission Factor Update | Business Travel | Business travel emissions can either increase or decrease depending on the change of the emission factor. | Increase of Emissions for :
Decrease of Emissions for:
|
Medium | Emission Factor & Calculation Methodology Update | Employee Commute | Employee Commute emissions can either increase or decrease depending on the change. Commuting distance averages and commuting modality shares (% car % public transport averages in France) are updated due to more accurate calculations. | Increase of Emissions for :
Decrease of Emissions for:
|
Changes affecting German 🇩🇪 market data
Type of Change | Module / | Description | Expected Impact |
Medium | Emission Factor & National Average Update | Electricity & Heating | Emission factors and National Averages updated based on latest research. | Measured emissions can increase by 9%. Emissions decrease by 30% when using the National Averages option. |
Major | Emission Factor Update | Business Travel | The average car on the road in Germany is becoming less polluting. Business Travel emission factors have been corrected to fit a standardised model across Plan A. | Car-related emissions can decrease by 29% (per kilometre basis). On average, car, train and plane travel emissions may increase up to 59% from 2022 to 2023. |
Major | Emission Factor Update | Waste | Waste emission factors have been corrected to fit a standardised model across Plan A. | Plastic, residual, paper, organic and glass waste emissions may decrease significantly. |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Cloud Computing | Smaller corrections in Cloud Computing Emission Factors. | Emission results are expected to change up to +/- 5%. |
Medium | Emission Factor Update | Work From Home electricity emissions | Corrections in Work From Home Emission Factors. | Emission results are expected to decrease up to 50%, though the average decrease expected is 24%. |
Changes affecting EU 🇪🇺 market data
Type of Change | Module / Emission category | Description | Expected Impact |
Medium | Emission Factor Updates | Vehicle Fleet | Vehicle fuel emission factors have been updated to align with EEA’s COPERT Tier 1 method. | Emissions results may decrease as much as 29%. |
Changes affecting Mexican 🇲🇽 market data
Type of Change | Module / Emission category | Description | Expected Impact |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Electricity | Changes of Emission Factors are mainly due to the national data update. Electricity emission factor decreased by -14%. | Emissions results may decrease as much as 14%. |
Medium | Emission Factor Update | Work From Home Electricity | Changes of Emission Factors are mainly due to the national data update. Work From Home emission factor decreased by -24%. | Emissions results may decrease as much as 24%. |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Cloud Computing | Changes of Emission Factors are mainly due to the national data update. Cloud Computing emission factor increased by 17%. | Emissions results may increase as much as 17%. |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Waste | Changes of Emission Factors are mainly due to the national data update. Glass waste emission factor increased by 0.8% | Emissions results may increase as much as 0.8%. |
Major | Emission Factor Update | Business Travel | Emissions related to road travel may increase by up to 82%. Short train travel may decrease by 2.8%, short and long flights by less than 1%. | |
Medium | Emission Factor Update | Employee Commute | Changes due to commuting distance average changes. | Emissions expected to increase by up to 24%. |
Changes affecting US 🇺🇸 market data
Type of Change | Module / Emission category | Description | Expected Impact |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Electricity | Changes of Emission Factors are mainly due to the national data update. Country and state emission factor has been updated. | Emissions results may decrease as much as 7%. |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Vehicle Fleet | Emission factors for unknown fuel increased slightly. | Emissions results may increase as much as 0.8%. |
Major | Emission Factor Update | Work From Home Heating | Changes of Emission Factors are mainly due to the national data update. | Emissions results may decrease as much as 46%. |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Cloud Computing | Changes of Emission Factors are mainly due to the national data update. Cloud Computing emission factor increased by 2%. | Emissions results may increase as much as 2%. |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Waste | Paper waste emissions have changed into mixed paper waste instead of office paper waste. | Emissions results may increase as much as 7%. |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Business Travel | Slight decreases and increases in Emission Factors. | Emissions related to road travel may decrease by up to 3%. Short train travel may decrease by 3%, short and long flights may increase by 1%. |
Medium | Emission Factor Update | Employee Commute | Changes due to commuting distance average changes. Average car commute distance increased. | Emissions expected to increase by up to 25%. |
Minor | National Averages Update | Energy (Electricity and Heating) | Slight increase in electricity values; decrease in heating values. | Emissions related to heating may decrease by up to 13%. Emissions for electricity may increase by up to 1%. |
Changes affecting Australian 🇦🇺 market data
Type of Change | Module / Emission category | Description | Expected Impact |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Electricity | Update of the electricity grid factor. Change compared to the old emission factor is around 10%, reported as published in 2022 by the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. | Emission results are expected to change by 10%. |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Waste (Glass) | Slight decrease in the waste emission factors of glass due to more accuracy in the waste model. | Emissions are expected to decrease slightly |
Changes affecting Indian 🇮🇳 market data
Type of Change | Module / Emission category | Description | Expected Impact |
Minor | Calculation Method Update | Waste | Slight decrease in the emission factors of glass waste, plastic waste, paper waste and residual waste due to more accuracy in the waste model | Emissions are expected to decrease slightly |
Minor | Emission Factor Update | Business Travel | Long haul flight: emission factor updated for more accuracy | Emissions are expected to change slightly |
Medium | Emission Factor Update | Cloud Computing and Facility Supply | Cloud server and Facility Supply emission factors updated due to new country-specific data availability | Emissions are expected to change slightly |
Medium | Calculation Method Update | Employee Commute | Update of percentage of employees commuting by public transportation due to an upgraded commute model | Emissions are expected to change slightly |
Medium | Emission Factor Update | Electricity | Update of percentage of renewables in India’s electricity mix as per newest publication from government | Emissions are expected to change slightly |
Emissions category-specific updates
Heating - Work From Home and National Averages 🔥
Type of Change | Module / Emission category | Description | Expected Impact |
Methodological change | Work from Home and National Average Heating | The old heating model distributed heating emissions equally to all heating months, and used global averages across several locations. The new model rectifies this by considering the time of year and has unique heating conversion factors for 177 countries (adding a further 73 countries, regions and areas within 2023). | For most geographies, emissions will increase in the respective winter months and decrease in summer months. |
Waste - Organic 🍽️
Type of Change | Module / Emission category | Description | Expected Impact |
Conversion factor error fix | Waste (Organic) | Due to an error fix, most of the emissions for Organic waste will change for Facilities in the European Union region. | Changes range range from 2% to 30%, with an average of 10% in changes. Changes will also be seen in previous years due to the change being an error fix, not a model or factor update/upgrade. Emission Factors like the one for the United Kingdom and the Global one did not see any changes. |
Purchased Goods and Services 💳
Type of Change | Module / Emission category | Description | Expected Impact |
External database update | Purchased Goods and Services | All country-specific industry data updated for 2022. | Impact dependent on country and industry. |