GBTA Welcomes New EU Measurement Framework for Transport Emissions
The regulation creates a standardized methodology for calculating transport emissions, addressing the current fragmentation where 70% of companies track travel emissions using inconsistent methods.
Brussels, Belgium −The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) welcomes the final approval of the CountEmissionsEU Regulation by the European Parliament yesterday. This new law establishes a consistent and accurate methodology for calculating emissions from transport services, including air and ground transport. This initiative is critical for business travellers, as it will help them make more sustainable choices by enabling them to compare the carbon footprint of their trips across providers and modes of transport.
The necessity for a standardised, international approach to calculating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from travel, is underscored by findings from GBTA’s Sustainability Acceleration Challenge, which reveals that 70% of companies are tracking carbon emissions from their employee travel programmes*. The data also shows that 60% of companies have sustainability features in their corporate booking platforms, including displaying emissions for each business trip. While progress has been made, many organisations still rely on multiple, often inconsistent methods to collect and calculate emissions data.
This fragmentation increases complexity and makes it difficult to form a clear, comparable picture of business travel emissions. By establishing a single harmonised methodology, CountEmissionsEU will help put organisations on an even footing, ensuring emissions are measured consistently across the industry and enabling meaningful comparison, transparency, and accountability.
GBTA welcomes the fact that the Regulation does not create additional reporting obligations and that the Commission has committed to providing a free, public calculation tool for SMEs, to ease implementation. This will prove very helpful for smaller companies that may struggle to calculate their travel emissions.
In addition, as business travel is a global sector in nature, GBTA calls for the EU to work with its global partners to achieve a global standard for transport emissions accounting. Global harmonisation would make it easier for business travellers to track and compare emissions from different travel options across the world. This would also prevent regional fragmentation that would be harmful for businesses.
GBTA welcomes the adoption of the CountEmissionsEU Regulation, which will enhance the business travel sector’s ability to move towards greener practices. We are hopeful that the Regulation will serve as a first step towards a global methodology for transport emissions accounting.
As an industry, business travel has been at the forefront of driving sustainable mobility, a topic which will be centre stage at our forthcoming Sustainability Summit in Vienna later this year.
GBTA CEO Suzanne Neufang
*Based on the results of the 2025 global benchmark
About GBTA
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the world's premier business travel and meetings trade organization serving stakeholders across six continents. GBTA and its 9,000+ members represent and advocate for the $1.57 trillion global business travel and meetings industry. GBTA and the GBTA Foundation deliver world-class education, events, research, advocacy, and media to a growing global network of more than 28,000 travel professionals and 125,000 active contacts. For more information, visit GBTA.org and GBTAFoundation.org.
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