Clean Fuels Series
Structured Leadership in Clean Fuels Accounting
The Clean Fuels Series (CFS) is a targeted programmatic extension of the Clean Energy Accounting Project (CEAP) designed to accelerate the development of accounting frameworks, attribution methodologies, and credible claims guidance for clean fuels across voluntary and compliance-aligned markets. The Clean Fuels Series is an 18-month program designed to close key guidance and collaboration gaps in clean fuels tracking, procurement, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting. Led by CEAP under the umbrella of Center for Resource Solutions (CRS), this initiative brings together a founding cohort of market leaders to build the tools, frameworks, and thought leadership the clean fuels industry urgently needs.
Market Context
The clean fuels space is entering an inflection point. Demand is accelerating, but accounting infrastructure is not keeping pace. The GHG Protocol’s Land Sector and Removals Standard guidance, and updated Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard guidance are ongoing with anticipated delivery in 2028, leaving the markets without definitive guidance for clean fuels reporting. As a result, stakeholders are navigating significant ambiguity in how to account for clean fuels–related emissions and mitigation activities in both Scope 1 and Scope 3. These challenges mirror the market fragmentation seen during the early days of electricity attribute accounting, when CRS played a critical role articulating accounting standards that helped stabilize and grow the market for contractual instruments for renewable electricity. Similarly, the market for clean fuels —including SAF, Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), renewable hydrogen (H₂), and biomethanol—will benefit from consistent, scalable accounting protocols.
Why Now?
Decisions today about if and where to invest in nascent clean fuels markets will determine which clean fuels scale in production in time to help sectors reliant on these fuels meet decarbonization targets. Unless these fuels markets can attract significant investment in the next 5–10 years, however, production will not scale quickly enough to help avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
While a few global initiatives to harmonize clean fuel emissions accounting are underway, they experience two fundamental challenges:
- They are too slow. The GHG Protocol anticipates that it will issue final guidance on how to account for contractual instruments for clean fuels sometime after its update of the Corporate Standard, currently anticipated in 2028. However, staffing changes and delays in publication of critical documents, like the Land Sector & Removals Guidance, suggest that these timelines could stretch beyond 2028.
- They are impractical. The value of generating an accurate inventory of all emissions diminishes if pursuing an accurate count inhibits or substantially delays meaningful reductions in GHG emissions. Current emissions accounting protocols take a punitive approach to emissions reporting, chasing the completeness of emissions inventories at the expense of opportunities to help industries rapidly reduce the emissions being counted.
It is essential to establish leadership in clean fuels accounting now to safeguard the integrity and longevity of global emissions reporting efforts. Organizations may hesitate to disclose emissions voluntarily if doing so undermines their ability to use contractual instruments to attract investment in emerging clean fuel technologies or to credibly claim progress toward mitigation goals. In the absence of binding international mandates, strong incentives for voluntary and timely emissions reductions are critical to sustaining global momentum.
The Clean Fuels Series intends to articulate practical guidance for clean fuels accounting that supports credible procurement, disclosure, and emissions reporting, while embracing opportunities to jumpstart the decarbonization of critical sectors. With a proven track record in developing guidance for the electricity sector—including leadership in development of the Scope 2 reporting methodology—CEAP is uniquely positioned to provide credible, neutral, and consensus-derived guidance to advance markets for clean fuels.
What CFS Delivers
- Authoritative, stakeholder-driven guidance on clean fuels accounting that works with industry to achieve substantial sector-wide decarbonization
- A proven mechanism for cross-sector collaboration on stakeholder-driven accounting guidance
- Credible guidance, best practice briefs, and actionable knowledge sharing that balances the desire for accurate accounting with the need for practical and timely mitigation solutions
- A mechanism integrated with the GHGP reform process to channel momentum and influence the outcome of current efforts to update global target-setting, emissions reporting, and accounting frameworks
- A space for fuels focused organizations to collectively identify where accounting problems lie that have historically blocked forward movement of the market… and address them
Membership Opportunities
Role: As a Founding Partner, you’ll co-create the vision for the Clean Fuels Series by shaping project priorities and framing industry best practices.
Eligibility: An established leader in the field of clean energy accounting, previous thought leadership experience, ability to cross-promote the project deliverables and concept of the series to external stakeholders.
Commitment: A one-time $50k contribution; introduction of ideas, resources, and collaborators that will help achieve the mission of the Clean Fuels Series.
Benefits: Input on the project topic and direction that the Clean Fuels Series will take, participation as a Council Member throughout the series duration, cross-collaboration opportunities with the overarching CEAP and CRS teams, organizational promotion through the publishing of each project.
Role: Council members are critical participants in the drafting, reviewing, and promoting of the published project scopes and deliverables. Council members serve as the working group and the sounding board for the turnkey operations of the series.
Eligibility: An organization with a key interest in the development of clean fuels accounting, previous thought leadership or working group experience preferred.
Commitment: A one-time $20k contribution; reviewing of draft guidance pieces, crosspromoting of published deliverables, participation in webinars, bringing ideas for promoting the series to the CEAP team and other Committee members.
Benefits: Support for your organization’s accounting progress, input into the development of critical accounting protocols, access to CEAP and CRS expertise, association with the CFS effort through written and verbal communications.
Role: CEAP has reserved 5 positions on the Council for non-profit organizations that may participate at the invitation of CEAP. Non-profit collaborators participate as full members of the Council and may have their organization listed on final CFS deliverables.
Eligibility: Registered non-profit organizations, by invitation only.
Commitment: No fee. Reviewing of draft guidance, cross-promotion of published deliverables.
Benefits: Ensure that the perspective of members is represented in development of accounting guidance, progress on accounting guidance critical to members.
Contact
We welcome the opportunity to connect with organizations interested in shaping credible, practical pathways for clean fuels accounting. Whether you are considering membership or would like to learn more about how the Clean Fuels Series can support your team’s goals, we are available to answer questions, discuss membership opportunities, and provide additional details on the program structure and upcoming work.
Please reach out to us to continue the conversation— we look forward to working together to advance transparent, effective accounting frameworks for clean fuels.
Renee O’Donnell
Manager, Clean Energy Accounting Project (CEAP)
renee.odonnell@resource-solutions.org