The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol has released the Land Sector and Removals (LSR) Standard, its first global framework enabling companies to account for greenhouse gas emissions and CO₂ removals linked to agricultural land use and emerging removal technologies such as direct air capture and geological storage.
Agriculture and land-use change account for around a quarter of global emissions, yet companies have so far lacked a credible way to fully reflect these impacts in their GHG inventories. The new LSR Standard addresses this gap by setting clear requirements for land-sector accounting and establishing safeguards for companies that choose to include CO₂ removals—both nature-based and technological.
“One of the bigger ‘blind spots’ in corporate carbon accounting has been the land sector,” said Dominic Waughray, Executive Vice President at WBCSD. “This standard removes much of that uncertainty by providing a globally recognised benchmark for measuring agricultural impacts with the same rigour as energy use.”
The LSR Standard will take effect from 1 January 2027, giving companies time to prepare. It follows a five-year development process involving more than 300 external reviewers, pilot testing by 96 companies, and input from 138 international experts, addressing over 4,000 public comments.
While reporting CO₂ removals remains optional, the Standard requires any removals included in corporate inventories to meet high-integrity criteria, including improved data quality, full lifecycle accounting and transparency on long-term storage. This is intended to help companies track progress towards climate targets with greater consistency and confidence.
Any company with significant land-sector activities in its operations or value chain will need to apply the LSR Standard to align with the GHG Protocol’s voluntary framework. The Standard is designed to be applicable across company sizes and value chains, from agricultural producers to downstream buyers and retailers.
“The Land Sector and Removals Standard is an important step forward for companies serious about their net-zero journey,” said Craig Hanson, Managing Director of Programs at the World Resources Institute. “By providing this road-tested, science-based framework, GHG Protocol is equipping businesses… with credible methods that enable companies to track their progress and prove their impact.”
Hanson added that the launch marks “another delivery milestone for GHG Protocol’s mandate—alongside ISO—to drive global enhancement and harmonisation of GHG accounting as part of the COP30 Action Agenda”.
Notably, the LSR Standard is the first GHG Protocol standard to introduce Scope 3 traceability requirements, allowing companies to engage suppliers, avoid double counting, and reduce greenwashing risks when accounting for land-based emissions and removals.
Two complex issues—agricultural leakage and forest carbon accounting—were reviewed independently by the GHG Protocol’s Independent Standards Board. Companies facing high risks of agricultural leakage will be required to account for and separately report these impacts. Forest carbon accounting has been excluded from this version of the Standard, with a request for further stakeholder input and field testing planned ahead of a future update.
Additional LSR Guidance is due later this year. Together, the Standard and Guidance aim to strengthen the credibility, consistency and comparability of corporate climate reporting by ensuring land-sector emissions and removals are properly accounted for.
