Following a riveting conversation with Killian Daly of EnergyTag about hourly matching in carbon accounting, this Energy Minute looks at the work of the Emissions First partnership - a group of companies including Akamai, Meta, General Motors and Salesforce - and its collective focus on carbon matching in clean energy procurement. 

Cleartrace’s Steven Goldman delves into the difference between hourly matching and carbon matching approaches, and what principles the partnership members are applying in their work. He also explores the evolution from traditional electricity purchasing strategies and discusses how aligning with this approach might boost companies' carbon impacts of their energy procurement.

Key Takeaways:

1. The Emissions First partnership seeks to maximize greenhouse gas emission reductions from the electricity system through corporate action. This includes prioritizing decarbonization, valuing grid decarbonization progress, incentivizing innovation in the emissions data ecosystem, and implementing accounting governance.
2. The coalition aims to source energy based on emissionality, focusing on the marginal carbon impact of each procurement rather than matching based on timing or which grid or market the energy is sourced in. Instead, they encourage companies to schedule electric loads around system signals like high marginal greenhouse gas emissions.
3. This approach signifies an evolution from traditional electricity purchasing strategies based on price or annual matching while providing flexibility for energy procurement teams to source for the greatest - while still feasible - marginal carbon impact.

Resources:

• Emissions First Partnership: https://www.emissionsfirst.com/