Key takeaway
After Q7.6 to Q7.9 establish your gross Scope 1 and Scope 2 numbers, CDP asks how those numbers compare to last year and how they break down inside the company. The questions are short, but they are where Awareness and Management tier separate from Disclosure-only responders. A clean year-on-year reconciliation plus disaggregation by gas, division, and activity is the difference between "we filled in the cells" and "we understand our emissions." This lesson covers Q7.10 (year-on-year), Q7.15 (gas-by-gas), and Q7.17 to Q7.20 (Scope 1 and Scope 2 breakdowns).
What this cluster covers
| Question | What it asks |
|---|---|
| Q7.10 | Did combined Scope 1+2 increase, decrease, or stay the same year over year? |
| Q7.10.1 | For each driver of the change (output, methodology, acquisitions, renewables, boundary, etc.), the percentage attributable |
| Q7.15 | Scope 1 and Scope 2 broken down by greenhouse gas (CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, SF6, NF3) |
| Q7.17 | Scope 1 broken down by business division, facility, country, or activity |
| Q7.20 | Scope 2 broken down by business division, facility, country, or activity |
The cluster is worth 8 to 12 points across Disclosure, Awareness, and Management tiers, gated on Q7.6 and Q7.7 already being filled.
Q7.10 and Q7.10.1, the reconciliation that scores
Q7.10 is a single dropdown: did emissions go up, down, or stay flat? Almost every responder fills it. The follow-up Q7.10.1 is where points are won or lost.
Q7.10.1 asks you to attribute the change to specific drivers, in percentage of prior-year emissions. CDP's fixed reason categories are:
- Change in renewable energy consumption
- Other emissions reduction activities
- Divestment, acquisitions, mergers
- Change in output (production volume, sales)
- Change in methodology (emission factors, GHG Protocol updates)
- Change in boundary (operational vs financial control, new facilities)
- Change in physical operating conditions (weather, plant outages)
- Unidentified
- Other
A scoring-quality answer breaks the year-on-year delta into at least three drivers, with percentages that sum to the headline change, plus a calculation explanation per row.
Worked example
Worked example. A company reports Scope 1+2 of 208 ktCO2e in the reporting year vs 200 ktCO2e last year, an 8 kt increase (+4 percent). Q7.10.1 should not say "increased by 4 percent." It should say:
- Change in output: +12 kt, +6 percent (additional production line commissioned in Q2)
- Other emissions reduction activities: -4 kt, -2 percent (boiler efficiency upgrade at Site A, lighting retrofit at Site B)
The two rows reconcile to the +4 percent headline. The grader can now see what is signal (output growth) versus what is action (reduction projects). This single table can lift the lesson on Q7.55 from Awareness to Management tier downstream.
Q7.15, breaking out the non-CO2 gases
Most companies report only CO2e in their headline number, leaving methane and refrigerants invisible. Q7.15 forces a per-gas split.
The expected answer covers the seven Kyoto-controlled gases. For sectors where one non-CO2 gas dominates (CH4 for oil and gas, N2O for chemicals and agriculture, HFCs for refrigeration and cooling), this question is high weight. For sectors with low non-CO2 exposure, completing the row with "below threshold" is enough for Disclosure.
A common mistake is to report all gases as "CO2e converted using AR5 GWPs" without showing the underlying gas masses. CDP wants the gas-level breakdown both as the original mass (e.g., kt CH4) and in CO2e.
Q7.17 and Q7.20, disaggregation that signals control
These two questions ask you to break Scope 1 (Q7.17) and Scope 2 (Q7.20) into one or more of:
- Business division
- Facility
- Country
- Activity (e.g., process emissions, mobile combustion, stationary combustion)
You select which dimensions you can provide. Selecting "by facility" with 200 facility-level rows scores at Management tier. Selecting "by country" with 30 country rows scores at Awareness tier. Selecting "by division" with 4 divisions scores at Disclosure tier. Granularity is graded.
Analogy
Think of Q7.17 and Q7.20 like a financial 10-K's segment reporting. A company that reports group-level revenue only is weaker than one that reports revenue by segment, geography, and customer type. The same is true for emissions disclosure. The depth at which you can break down your inventory is treated by CDP as a proxy for how much management attention the data actually receives.
Common mistakes
- Reporting only the headline year-on-year change without filling Q7.10.1. This caps you at Disclosure tier on the cluster.
- Filling Q7.10.1 with rows whose percentages do not reconcile to the Q7.10 direction. Graders flag this and points are forfeited.
- Skipping Q7.15 for sectors with significant CH4 or HFC exposure. The question is high-weight for those sectors and zero-disclosure here drags the whole climate score.
- Selecting "country" breakdown on Q7.17 but only providing aggregated figures for two regions. CDP expects each country listed.
For the underlying inventory mechanics behind these breakdowns (how to assign emissions to facilities, how to convert by GWP), see our GHG Scope 1 and 2 course.
Practice calculation
A company's Scope 1+2 went from 500 ktCO2e to 460 ktCO2e. Drivers: a divestment removed 30 kt, output growth added 20 kt, renewable energy procurement reduced 25 kt, and methodology change reduced 5 kt. What is the headline percentage change to report at Q7.10.1?