What are Scope 2 emissions?
Scope 2 emissions are the indirect emissions from the energy a company buys and consumes — electricity taken from the grid, and district heating, cooling or steam bought from a supplier. The combustion happens somewhere else, at a power station you do not own, but the emissions are attributed to you because you consumed the output.
How Scope 2 emissions are calculated
Metered consumption in kWh multiplied by the emission factor of the grid supplying it. The consumption comes off your electricity invoices — which is why Scope 2 is usually the easiest scope to evidence properly, and the one where source documents are simplest to attach.
The factor is where it gets decided. Grids differ enormously. A hydro-dominated grid can be an order of magnitude cleaner than a lignite-dominated one, and applying a European average to either produces a number that is simply wrong. On carbon-intensive grids, Scope 2 is frequently the single largest line in the whole inventory — larger than everything burned on site.
Location-based and market-based
There are two accepted methods and they answer different questions.
Location-based applies the average emission factor of the physical grid you are connected to. It describes the electricity that actually flowed into your building.
Market-based applies the factor of the electricity you contracted for, including guarantees of origin or renewable energy certificates where you hold them. It describes what you paid for.
Where a market instrument exists, the GHG Protocol expects both to be reported. A company claiming a low market-based figure on the strength of certificates should expect a verifier to ask for the certificates.
Why Scope 2 emissions decide the CBAM number
CBAM reports direct and indirect emissions separately, and for several covered goods the indirect component carries real weight. A producer on a clean grid has a genuine structural advantage — but it only appears in the filing if the correct grid factor is applied, sourced, and defensible when questioned.
This is the most common place a generic international platform gets a Western Balkan inventory wrong, and the error is not small.
Related
Scope 1 emissions covers what you burn yourself. Scope 3 emissions covers your value chain. All three are compared in Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions explained.