ISO 14064: the three parts, the six categories and what “certification” really means.

ISO 14064-1 specifies principles and requirements at the organisation level for quantifying and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and removals. It covers the design, development, management, reporting and verification of an organisation’s GHG inventory. This is the part people mean when they say “ISO 14064” about a company footprint.

The current text is ISO 14064-1:2018, the second edition, published in December 2018. It replaced the 2006 edition. ISO last reviewed and confirmed it in 2024, so it remains current. Its status on iso.org is now “to be revised”, and a replacement is at working-draft stage.

Like the rest of the series, ISO 14064-1 is GHG programme neutral. If a programme such as a regulator’s scheme applies, its requirements come on top of the standard.

ISO 14064-2 works at project level. It covers the quantification, monitoring and reporting of activities intended to reduce emissions or increase removals: planning the project, identifying the sources, sinks and reservoirs that are relevant to the project and its baseline scenario, monitoring, documenting performance and managing data quality.

A manufacturer needs part 2 when it develops a specific project whose reductions it wants to quantify against a baseline, not to report its annual footprint. The current edition was published in April 2019, was confirmed in 2024 and is also listed as “to be revised”.

ISO 14064-3 specifies principles and requirements for verifying and validating GHG statements, whether they relate to an organisation, a project or a product. Verification looks back at a statement about emissions that have already happened. Validation assesses a statement about the future, such as the projected reductions of a planned project.

A verifier working to ISO 14064-3 agrees the level of assurance with the client, limited or reasonable, plans the work around the risk of material misstatement, tests the data and calculations, and issues a verification statement. The current edition is from April 2019 and is listed on iso.org as confirmed.

ISO 14065 sets the principles and requirements for bodies that validate and verify environmental information statements. It is a sector application of ISO/IEC 17029:2019, the general standard for the competence, consistent operation and impartiality of validation and verification bodies. The third edition was published in December 2020 and was confirmed by ISO in 2026.

ISO 14064-3 describes how the verification is done. ISO 14065 describes who may do it and how that body must operate.

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and ISO 14064-1 share the same foundations: an organisational boundary, a base year, documented methods and a report. In practice an inventory built properly on one can usually be presented under the other. The differences that matter:

• Structure. The GHG Protocol uses three scopes. ISO 14064-1:2018 uses six categories.
• Indirect emissions. The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard requires Scope 1 and Scope 2 and leaves Scope 3 optional. ISO 14064-1 asks the organisation to decide, with documented criteria, which indirect emissions are significant, and to quantify and report those.
• Removals. ISO 14064-1 covers emissions and removals in the same inventory, starting with category 1.
• Verification. The ISO series includes its own verification standard in part 3, and its own standard for verifiers in ISO 14065. The GHG Protocol does not verify or accredit anyone.

Some schemes accept both. The EcoVadis Carbon Rating, for example, is built on the GHG Protocol and also recognises reporting under ISO 14064, as described in how EcoVadis scores the carbon questions.

In September 2025 the GHG Protocol and ISO announced a partnership to co-develop greenhouse gas accounting standards. For companies, the work covers ISO 14064-1 together with the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, Scope 2 Guidance and Scope 3 Standard.

According to the GHG Protocol’s standard development plan of 29 July 2026, the result will be one consolidated corporate standard, expected to be jointly published and co-branded with ISO. The plan estimates a public consultation on the full draft in the second quarter of 2027 and publication of the final standard in the fourth quarter of 2028. Until then, ISO 14064-1:2018 and the current GHG Protocol standards remain the ones in use.

CBAM does not use ISO 14064. It has its own method in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2547, which calculates specific embedded emissions per good, by CN code and installation, not a company footprint. It also has its own verification rules: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2546 on verification principles and Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2551 on accreditation and verification.

Only national accreditation bodies in EU or EEA countries can accredit CBAM verifiers. The Commission expected the first CBAM accreditations around September 2026, with accredited verifiers issuing their first verification reports from January 2027. A verification statement under ISO 14064-3 is not a CBAM verification report.

The data underneath is shared, though. The same fuel invoices, electricity meter readings and production records feed a corporate inventory and a CBAM operator’s emissions report. Collecting them once, with the evidence attached, serves both.

Companies reporting under the CSRD disclose gross Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions under ESRS E1. Application requirement AR 39 of ESRS E1 says the company shall consider the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (2004 version) and may also consider EN ISO 14064-1:2018. EFRAG has clarified that a company applying ISO 14064-1 must still meet the ESRS requirements, for example on reporting boundaries and on disclosing market-based Scope 2.

The rules are moving. The Omnibus I Directive (EU) 2026/470, in force since 18 March 2026, narrowed the CSRD to the largest companies and introduced protections for companies in their value chain with up to 1,000 employees, so that the reporting standards do not require reporters to obtain more from them than the voluntary reporting standard covers. A revised set of ESRS, adopted by the Commission in July 2026, is to apply to financial years from 1 January 2027 if the Parliament and Council do not object. For a supplier in the Western Balkans, the CSRD arrives as a customer’s Scope 3 request, and what it asks for is a defensible Scope 1 and Scope 2 figure. The CSRD supplier guide covers that path.