Scope 2 electricity evidence for MENA operations

A credible electricity emissions calculation starts with knowing which sites, meters and reporting months the numbers represent. For a MENA business with a head office, warehouse and leased premises, the most useful first step is a controlled electricity register that connects each total to its underlying evidence. A polished emissions dashboard cannot resolve an unidentified meter or a missing billing period.

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard provides the corporate inventory framework, while its Scope 2 Guidance covers purchased electricity, steam, heat and cooling. This article focuses on electricity evidence. It is an operational method we recommend, not a statement that every business in MENA has the same reporting obligation. National requirements, customer requests and the selected reporting framework must be assessed separately.

Keep three decisions visible: what the inventory includes, which records support the consumption, and which emissions method applies. Settle these before presenting a footprint to a customer or publishing a renewable electricity claim.

Write a short boundary note naming the reporting entity, period and consolidation approach. List owned and leased locations and explain how each is treated. For a shared building, record whether the organisation receives a utility invoice, a landlord allocation or a submeter reading. Do not assume that paying a service charge automatically establishes the correct emissions classification.

Facilities should confirm the physical meter and location; finance should reconcile the account and invoice; the inventory owner should approve inclusion. Keep closed sites and replacement meters in the register with effective dates. This prevents a meter change from looking like a dramatic reduction in consumption.

For portfolios spanning the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other markets, retain country and relevant grid geography as separate fields. Do not apply one convenient regional factor to every location without a documented methodological basis.

Use one row per meter and consumption period. Record the site, supplier, account, meter identifier, start and end dates, kWh, whether the value is measured or estimated, original filename, document page and reviewer. Preserve the original file separately from the working calculation.

Check overlapping dates, gaps and repeated invoice numbers before adding monthly totals. Credit notes and rebills need an explicit replacement rule so that the original and corrected consumption are not both counted. Where a bill crosses the reporting boundary, document how consumption is allocated; use actual interval data when available, and label any time-based estimate.

A missing invoice is an unresolved data item, not zero consumption. Maintain an exceptions list with an owner, due date, interim estimate if necessary and the reason for that estimate. When the real record arrives, replace the estimate and keep the revision history.

Under GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance, contractual instruments used for the market-based method must satisfy quality criteria. A renewable tariff label or a payment receipt alone does not demonstrate that those criteria have been met. Retain the underlying instrument and evidence of the relevant attributes, ownership and cancellation or retirement where applicable.

Under the published Scope 2 Guidance, companies with any operations in markets providing product- or supplier-specific contractual data report both location-based and market-based totals. Companies operating only in markets without that data report the location-based result. Document which condition applies; having no renewable purchase of your own does not by itself remove a dual-reporting obligation. Scope 2 Guidance, chapter 7.1. For each factor, retain the publisher, geography, vintage, units and methodological coverage. Keep the selected factor with the calculation so another reviewer can reproduce the result.

An electricity procurement decision does not by itself substantiate an organisation-wide carbon-neutral claim. Keep the wording of any public claim within the boundary and evidence actually assessed. GHG Protocol is updating its standards; distinguish consultation material from the requirements used for the current inventory.

Assume a warehouse has 120,000 kWh of documented electricity consumption and, solely for this illustration, a factor of 0.40 kg CO2e per kWh. The calculation is 120,000 × 0.40 ÷ 1,000 = 48 tonnes CO2e. The factor is invented for arithmetic demonstration and must not be used as a UAE, Saudi or other national factor.

If the total contains only eleven months, the 48 tonnes is not automatically an annual result. The reviewer must first resolve the missing period or approve a transparent estimate. If the missing month is later added, update both the electricity total and its resulting emissions. Do not edit only the chart.

This fictional control record concerns one meter for one month. The original invoice reports 12,000 kWh. A later correction cancels that invoice and replaces it with 10,800 kWh. The accounting export also contains the payment and credit entries.

Accepted electricity is 10,800 kWh, not 22,800 kWh obtained by adding both positive invoices. The adjustment to the prior accepted activity is −1,200 kWh. No emissions change is calculated here because a real, method-appropriate factor has not been selected.

The reviewer matches the correction reference, meter and covered dates before replacing the original value. A negative financial amount alone is not enough to infer a full reversal of physical consumption: a credit can concern price rather than kWh. If the correction is price-only, retain the original activity unless source evidence changes it.

Keep the corrected month connected to both calculation methods where dual reporting applies. Updating the source register but leaving an old chart or customer extract unchanged produces inconsistent versions.

AI-assisted extraction can help staff transfer invoice fields into a draft register. Test it against a manually checked sample, especially for Arabic and English documents, decimal separators, units and estimated readings. Require a person to verify the source page before accepting a record. Use approved tools and remove unnecessary personal or commercially sensitive information.

For teams learning how to build these repeatable document workflows, From AI to SI offers personalised AI training and task support. It is a QSE Advisory product, disclosed here as a related brand. Training supports staff capability; it does not replace the inventory methodology, technical review or independent assurance.

Start with one reporting month and a small group of meters. Resolve the recurring extraction errors before expanding. Track errors by type so training addresses the actual weakness rather than simply producing more spreadsheet rows.

Can a landlord statement be used? It can form part of the evidence, but record the underlying consumption basis, allocation method and boundary decision. A statement without those details may require follow-up.

Should missing data delay all reporting? Assess the materiality and applicable requirements. Where estimation is appropriate, disclose the basis and limitations and obtain review; never silently convert an unknown into zero.

What should management sign off? At minimum, the boundary, unresolved exceptions, method and factor selection, and the exact public wording. Our recommended final check is to trace a sample from the published total back to its original record.

GHG Protocol Corporate Standard — Primary source supporting the regulatory or methodological statements above. Operational workflows and examples are QSE Advisory recommendations.

GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance — Primary source supporting the regulatory or methodological statements above. Operational workflows and examples are QSE Advisory recommendations.

GHG Protocol standards update process — Primary source supporting the regulatory or methodological statements above. Operational workflows and examples are QSE Advisory recommendations.

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