The Initiative Climat International (iCI) has launched a new standard for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions disclosure across the private equity sector.

The standard represents a practical application of the GHG Protocol and the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) Global GHG Accounting and Reporting Standard to private equity investing, and is designed to support ESG professionals at private markets firms.

The standard, developed by iCI with consultants ERM, enables GPs to establish processes for carbon footpring data collection and calculation. It provides guidance on a number of different topics, including:

• Calculating Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions of the GP and each portfolio company
• Attributing GHG emissions from portfolios to GPs and Limited Partners (LPs)
• Aggregating emissions at the fund level and reporting to stakeholders

Peter Dunbar, Head of Private Equity at the Principles for Responsible Investment, comments: “When it comes to measuring and reporting financed emissions, the private equity asset class remains a distance behind public markets. This excellent guidance will equip private equity ESG professionals with a blueprint based on preexisting global standards, which will help them improve the quality of their GHG emissions reporting. This improvement will benefit asset owners who often lack good quality reporting from private equity firms and enable the asset class to close the gap with public markets.”