2.3 - Temporal boundary

Over which 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 typically one year, in order to best reflect the organisation's activity as a whole.

A Bilan Carbone® can also cover a specific period: the analysis then concerns the duration of an event or a project, 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 can take place over several years and the Bilan Carbone® then includes all the data and emissions associated with the years of the project.

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

🔎If the Bilan Carbone® is to be used for reporting of the regulatory GHG Assessment, the temporal boundary considered must be one year (thereporting year).

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