Introduction

Land use, agriculture, and land-based supply chains represent one of the largest and least consistently measured sources of global greenhouse gas emissions. Roughly one quarter of global emissions originate from agriculture and land use change, yet corporate climate reporting has historically struggled to capture these impacts in a credible, comparable way. Many companies rely on fragmented methodologies, proxy data, or voluntary disclosures that vary widely in scope and quality. This has created a structural gap in corporate climate accounting at a time when regulators, investors, and customers increasingly expect transparent reporting across full value chains.

The Land Sector and Removals Standard responds directly to this challenge. As the first greenhouse gas accounting standard dedicated to land-sector emissions and carbon dioxide removals, it equips companies with consistent methods to quantify, report, and track emissions from agricultural production, land use change, and selected CO₂ removal activities. The Standard also introduces integrity safeguards for companies that choose to report removals, helping distinguish high-quality climate claims from those that lack robust data or monitoring.

Taking effect on January 1, 2027, the Standard is designed for companies that own or control land, purchase or sell agricultural products, or otherwise influence land use through their operations or value chains. It is intended to strengthen the credibility of corporate climate reporting and align land-sector accounting with broader decarbonization pathways consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

Scope and Structure of the Standard

The Land Sector and Removals Standard applies to agricultural emissions and removals as well as certain CO₂ removal technologies, while deliberately excluding forestry and non-productive land uses in its first version. This scoped approach reflects both scientific complexity and practical feasibility, allowing companies to begin reporting consistently on the most material land-sector sources without delaying the release of the broader framework.

The Standard is used in combination with existing corporate greenhouse gas accounting frameworks. It builds on the Corporate Standard for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and complements the Scope 3 Standard for value chain emissions. Together, these standards form an integrated system that enables companies to account for land-based emissions alongside energy, industrial, and purchased goods emissions.

To clarify applicability and structure, the key elements of the Standard can be summarized as follows:

Dimension	Description
Covered activities	Agricultural emissions and removals and CO₂ removal technologies
Excluded activities	Forestry and non-productive land uses in Version 1.0
Effective date	January 1, 2027
Role within GHG Protocol	Supplement to the Corporate Standard and Scope 3 Standard
Inventory focus	Annual, entity-level GHG inventories
Company scope	Companies with significant land-sector activities or CO₂ removal activities

Companies of any size may use the Standard, provided they have land-sector activities in their operations or value chains. This includes agricultural producers, food and beverage companies, apparel brands sourcing natural fibers, bioenergy producers, and companies engaged in carbon removal technologies with geologic storage. The framework is designed to scale with data availability, allowing companies to start with conservative estimates and improve accuracy over time.

Core Land-Sector Emissions Accounting Requirements

The Standard requires companies with significant land-sector activities to account for distinct and non-overlapping categories of land-based emissions within their greenhouse gas inventories. Together, these categories are designed to comprehensively capture emissions driven by land use change, land management, and biogenic products.

Companies are required to account for the following land-sector emissions categories:

• Land use change emissions Emissions resulting from deforestation and the conversion of natural ecosystems to agricultural land, calculated using direct or statistical land use change methods depending on traceability.
• Land management net biogenic CO₂ emissions Net changes in carbon stocks on existing agricultural land, including losses from soil degradation or gains from improved land management practices.
• Land management production emissions Ongoing greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production activities such as livestock digestion, manure management, fertilizer application, and rice cultivation.
• Biogenic product emissions Emissions of CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O from the combustion, decomposition, or use of biogenic products, reported either within the physical greenhouse gas inventory or separately depending on data completeness.

These categories are mutTo support implementation across diverse supply chains, the Standard allows companies to apply different accounting approaches based on traceability and data availability. The relationship between traceability and accounting approach can be summarized as follows:

Level of traceability	Typical data used	Accounting approach
No traceability	Global or regional averages	Statistical land use change and average emission factors
Jurisdiction or sourcing region	Country or regional data	Jurisdiction-level land use change and land management estimates
Land management unit or farm	Site-specific activity data	Direct land use change and stock-change accounting

This graduated approach enables companies to improve accuracy over time while maintaining consistency and transparency in reported results.ability allows. This flexibility is intended to encourage broader adoption while maintaining transparency around data quality.

In addition to emissions within the physical inventory, companies must also report two land-sector categories separately from emissions totals. These include land use associated with the agricultural products a company sources and land carbon leakage, where applicable. Land carbon leakage captures emissions that occur outside a company’s operations and value chain when high leakage risk activities displace food or feed production to other lands.

Accounting for CO₂ Removals With Integrity Safeguards

While companies are not required to include CO₂ removals in their greenhouse gas inventories, the Standard provides a comprehensive framework for those that choose to do so. This is particularly relevant as interest in carbon removals grows alongside net zero commitments.

The Standard recognizes three distinct types of CO₂ removals that may be accounted for and reported separately:

• Land management CO₂ removals from agricultural practices that increase carbon stored in soils or biomass
• Captured biogenic CO₂ with geologic storage resulting from bioenergy or other biogenic sources
• Technological CO₂ removals with geologic storage, including direct air capture

To ensure high-integrity reporting and prevent overstatement or double counting, the Standard establishes clear and non-overlapping safeguards. Companies choosing to report removals must meet the following requirements:

Safeguard	What companies must demonstrate
Lifecycle accounting	All upstream and downstream emissions associated with the removal pathway are included
Traceability	Clear linkage from the removal activity to the location where carbon is stored
Permanence	Ongoing monitoring of stored carbon and accounting for any future reversals
Data quality	Use of empirical data and quantified uncertainty estimates
Double counting prevention	Allocation methods that ensure the same removal is not claimed by multiple entities

By setting consistent rules for removals, the Standard enables companies to clearly distinguish between emissions reductions and removals, improving the transparency and credibility of climate strategies and progress toward targets.

Development Process, Open Issues, and Next Steps

The Land Sector and Removals Standard was developed through a five-year global consultation process involving more than 300 external reviewers and pilot testing by 96 companies. Thousands of public comments were reviewed and addressed through technical working groups and advisory committees, ensuring broad stakeholder input.

Two complex issues required additional deliberation. Agricultural leakage was identified as a significant risk for undercounted emissions, leading to a requirement for separate reporting when companies engage in high leakage risk activities. Forest carbon accounting proved more challenging. Differences in scientific perspectives and limited pilot testing led to the decision to exclude forestry from this first version of the Standard.

A future update is planned to address forest carbon accounting following additional research, stakeholder input, and field testing. Until then, companies that choose to disclose forest-related impacts are expected to be transparent about their methodologies.

In the second quarter of 2026, accompanying implementation guidance will be published, providing equations, examples, and case studies to support adoption. Throughout 2026, companies will have access to trainings and engagement opportunities to prepare for the Standard’s effective date.

Conclusion

The Land Sector and Removals Standard represents a major step forward in corporate climate accounting. By providing consistent methods to measure land-sector emissions and introducing safeguards for CO₂ removals, it addresses one of the most significant gaps in existing reporting frameworks.

For companies with land-intensive operations or supply chains, early preparation will be critical. Improving data quality, strengthening traceability, and understanding leakage risks will not only support compliance with voluntary standards but also enhance credibility with investors and stakeholders. As land-sector emissions and removals become an increasingly central part of climate strategies, this Standard lays the foundation for more transparent, comparable, and decision-useful corporate climate reporting.

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