2.3 - Temporal boundary

Over what period should emissions be accounted for?

Source: Pexels

A Bilan Carbone® must quantify an organisation's emissions over a time interval called the temporal boundary of the approach.

The temporal boundary of a Bilan Carbone® is classically one year, in order to best reflect the organisation's overall activity.

A Bilan Carbone® can also cover a particular period: the analysis then focuses on the duration of an event or a project, in order to provide decision-making support. It is possible to carry out the Bilan Carbone® of an event "in real time", or to study the GHG dimension of several scenarios of the same project by choosing the appropriate organisational, operational and temporal boundaries.

Example: construction projects may span several years and the Bilan Carbone® then integrates all the associated data and emissions from the years of the project.

🔎 To express the Bilan Carbone® consistently with analytical carbon accounting, the temporal boundary considers a complete accounting period, best reflecting the organisation's overall activity.

🔎If the Bilan Carbone® is intended to serve the reporting of the mandatory BEGES-R, the temporal boundary considered must be one year (the reporting year).

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