GHG Protocol releases LSRS – the Land Sector and Removals Standard

On 30 January 2026, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol issued the LSRS to account for land sector emissions and removals.

The Land Sector and Removals Standard (the LSRS or the standard) is effective as of 1 January 2027 and aims to support companies that own or control land, purchase or sell products produced on agricultural lands, or have other relevant land-based activities in their value chain in accounting and reporting their GHG emissions and removals.

The Standard will be complemented by the Land Sector and Removals Guidance which was released as a draft in 2022 and is expected to be issued in Q2 2026. During public consultation and pilot testing, the GHG Protocol Secretariat received over 4,000 individual comments.

One of the key areas of focus of the Standard is the clarification on reporting of agricultural leakage. Companies will need to use the carbon opportunity cost metric to include indirect emissions on land outside a company’s boundaries.

Other noteworthy requirements compared to the draft Guidance have been made in the following topics: Traceability, Land Use Change, Land Use and Leakage, Removals, Product Carbon Storage. The Standard does not provide a consensus on forest carbon accounting. Therefore, this version of the Standard will not be applicable to forestry.  

The requirement to apply the LSR Standard is restricted to the application of the GHG Protocol. When a company prepares its GHG emissions in accordance with, for example, ESRS or ISSB Standards, it is not required to apply the LSR Standard given that these frameworks do not reference it. However, the Standard may be a useful source of guidance to address a sustainability-related impact, risk or opportunity identified by the company.