The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) encourages U.S. stakeholders to take part in an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) workshop to develop an International Workshop Agreement (IWA 52) on a Harmonized Methodology for the Calculation of Emission Factors used in Transport GHG Calculations. The kick-off meeting will be held December 15–16, 2026, in Barcelona, Spain, with remote participation available.
Emission factors are the values that convert fuel or energy use into a greenhouse gas (GHG) figure—the input at the heart of any transport GHG calculation. A harmonized approach to producing them would let companies, regulators, and customers compare results with confidence across organizations and across borders.
Because an IWA is developed through an open workshop rather than ISO’s traditional country-representation process, any interested U.S. stakeholder can participate directly. ANSI particularly encourages those working in freight, logistics, fuel and energy supply, corporate GHG accounting, and related policy to register and join, in person or remotely. Participation is limited to registered participants.
U.S. parties who register for the workshop are asked to notify ANSI’s ISO Team at [email protected].
Workshop Details
Background
According to the workshop invitation, transport accounts for around a quarter of total human-caused, energy-related GHG emissions, which puts a premium on measuring them consistently. ISO 14083:2023 established a common international method for quantifying and reporting GHG emissions from transport chain operations and has become a widely used reference point, including in the European Commission’s CountEmissions EU Regulation.
ISO 14083 sets out high-level rules for how emission factors should be formulated, but leaves considerable flexibility in how they are calculated, which produces variation in results. IWA 52 will address that next layer of detail, clarifying key definitions and concepts for the development and use of emission factors covering the full lifecycle of transport energy carriers—commonly described as “well-to-wheel” or “well-to-wake.” Rather than setting requirements, the agreement will map out next steps for standardization.
Much of the groundwork is already in place. CLEVER (Creating Legitimate Emission Factors for Verified Emission Reductions), a project funded under the European Commission’s Horizon program, has brought producers, fuel suppliers, transport providers, policymakers, and emission factor developers together to build consensus on a harmonized approach, and IWA 52 is intended to carry that collaborative work into the standardization process. An introductory brochure on CLEVER is included as Annex 3 of the workshop invitation.
The workshop follows approval by ISO’s Technical Management Board of a proposal from the Smart Freight Centre (SFC) and DIN, the German Institute for Standardization. SFC is the proposer; DIN provides the secretariat. IWA 52 is designed to work alongside ISO 14083, not replace it, and is intended to serve as the basis for possible future standards work in ISO/TC 207/SC 7.
What Is an IWA?
An IWA is a type of document that is developed with direct participation of stakeholders outside of the traditional ISO country representation to enable players to negotiate in an open workshop environment. After the IWA workshop, text will be edited and published.
