Emissions get reported in three separate statements

In the integration announcement, the passage anyone working on transport and certificates should look at hardest is the one about the Action and Market Instrument (AMI) standard.

The proposal introduces a "multi-statement" approach, enabling companies to report three distinct elements — emissions from their own operations and value chain (physical emissions), emissions tied to market instruments such as commodity certificates and abatement-linked contracts (market-based emissions), and the emissions impact of actions and investment decisions (consequential method)

Three streams

Physical emissions — emissions from fuel actually burned.

Market-based emissions — reductions secured through certificates and contracts.

The impact of actions and investments — the change our decisions made in the world.

They are not added into one number; each is written in its own box.

What that means in practice

Expecting a company's emissions figure to fall by the amount of certificates it buys does not match the picture the standard is drawing. The two numbers sit side by side, and each demands its own evidence.

There is no need to read that as a loss. A divided number is easier to explain than a lumped one.

The evidence is one thing

The three boxes ask different questions, but what gets handed over is the same.

The physical box is calculated from fuel actually burned; a certificate in the market-based box needs evidence of the reduction before it can be issued; and the actions box needs records from both before and after the change.

On which leg, when, which vehicle, how much fuel.

※ The multi-statement approach cited here is what the announcement itself describes the proposal as introducing; it is not settled standard text.

This article expands one section of LCS international standards analysis 1, Two Standards Become One. The full report works from GHG Protocol's published announcement and partnership FAQ as primary sources, and marks anything still at proposal stage as such.