For North American companies with operations across multiple countries, renewable electricity procurement is becoming more complex.

A company headquartered in the United States may operate facilities in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Europe and Asia. It may have one global renewable electricity target, but it cannot necessarily use one type of certificate across all those operations.

Renewable Energy Certificates are the established environmental attribute instrument in the United States and Canada. In many other markets, companies use International Renewable Energy Certificates, known as I-RECs. Both instruments represent environmental attributes associated with electricity generation, but their eligibility depends on where the electricity is generated, where it is consumed and which reporting framework the company follows.

The key procurement principle is increasingly clear: renewable electricity attributes need to correspond to the market in which electricity consumption occurs.

For AFS Commodities clients, this turns global renewable electricity procurement into a portfolio-management exercise. Companies need the right certificate, from the right market, for the right consumption, with the correct retirement and documentation.

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An I-REC is an electricity attribute, not an international offset

An I-REC represents the environmental attributes associated with one megawatt-hour of renewable electricity generation. The certificate contains information including the generation location, technology and production facility. Certificates can be issued, transferred between market participants and ultimately redeemed for an end-user claim.

The structure allows renewable electricity attributes to be traded separately from physical electricity.

This is particularly useful in markets where companies cannot easily enter direct power purchase agreements or purchase dedicated renewable electricity products from their utility.

However, the word "International" can create confusion.

An I-REC is not a global instrument that allows renewable generation in any country to be applied against electricity consumption anywhere else.

The I-TRACK Foundation itself notes that good reporting practices generally expect the country of origin to match the country of redemption unless a recognized multi-country electricity market exists. It also states that reporting standards, regulators and auditors ultimately determine the market boundaries applicable to environmental claims.

For corporate buyers, this means certificate ownership and certificate eligibility are separate questions.

A company may legally purchase an I-REC generated in one country while still being unable to apply that certificate against Scope 2 consumption in another.

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The United States and Canada are an important exception

RE100's current Technical Criteria illustrate how market boundaries work.

The framework states that renewable electricity claims should be based on generation occurring within the same renewable electricity market as the consumption being addressed. In most cases, individual countries are treated as separate markets.

The United States and Canada are an exception.

RE100 recognizes the two countries as a single renewable electricity market. This allows renewable electricity procurement across the U.S.-Canada boundary to be treated differently from procurement between unrelated national markets, provided the other eligibility requirements are satisfied.

Mexico is not included in that North American single market.

For procurement purposes, this creates a distinction that multinational companies need to understand. A U.S. company cannot assume that because Mexico is geographically part of North America, a U.S. REC can automatically be used against electricity consumed by its Mexican operations.

RE100 treats Mexico as its own renewable electricity market and identifies I-RECas the EAC system in common use there. By comparison, the U.S.-Canada single market uses the established North American REC system.

A company with factories in Texas, Ontario and Monterrey therefore needs to manage at least two renewable electricity procurement markets, even though all three facilities are in North America.

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I-RECs matter most when North American companies operate internationally

The strongest relevance of I-RECs for U.S. and Canadian companies is therefore not replacing domestic RECs.

It is enabling renewable electricity procurement for international operations.

The I-RECsystem operates across a growing range of electricity markets. I-TRACK identifies active certificate markets across Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, with accredited local issuers responsible for registering eligible generation and verifying issuance.

For a U.S.-headquartered manufacturer operating in Brazil, for example, Brazilian renewable electricity consumption may be addressed through certificates issued within the Brazilian market. A company with operations in Mexico can procure Mexican I-RECs. Operations in markets such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam or the United Arab Emirates may require their own locally eligible instruments.

This allows a company to manage one global renewable electricity objective while building separate procurement portfolios underneath it.

The result is not one global REC market. It is a network of national and regional environmental attribute markets.

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Cross-border trading is possible, but claims are more restricted

I-RECs can technically move between participants, and cross-border redemptions do occur.

I-TRACK began publishing the country of issuance associated with redemptions from June 2025 specifically to increase transparency around cross-border certificate activity. Its subsequent analysis found that the majority of certificates continued to be redeemed in the same country where they were issued, with cross-border redemption remaining relatively uncommon.

This distinction matters commercially.

A certificate may be tradable across borders without being appropriate for every corporate Scope 2 claim across those borders.

Companies should therefore start with the location of their electricity consumption and work backwards to determine which instruments satisfy the applicable accounting and target requirements.

Buying the cheapest renewable certificate available globally and allocating it afterwards creates increasing accounting risk.

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GHG Protocol already requires quality criteria

The existing GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance recognizes contractual instruments including RECs, Guarantees of Origin and I-RECs within market-based Scope 2 accounting.

However, those contractual instruments must meet the Scope 2 Quality Criteria. Companies are expected to demonstrate appropriate ownership, retirement, vintage and geographic relevance, among other requirements.

The current system therefore does not treat all certificates as interchangeable simply because they represent one megawatt-hour of renewable electricity.

This is becoming even more important because the GHG Protocol is revising Scope 2 accounting.

Its 2025 consultation proposed replacing broad geographic matching with a stronger deliverability test. Under the proposal, contractual instruments would generally need to originate from generation considered physically capable of supplying the consuming load, with additional pathways available for demonstrating transmission between markets.

Those proposals are not final.

Following consultation, GHG Protocol announced in July 2026 that Scope 2 development will now form part of the wider harmonization between GHG Protocol and ISO. A consolidated consultation is planned for Q2 2027 and the new corporate standard is currently expected in Q4 2028.

For buyers, however, the direction creates an important procurement question: will certificates purchased under today's broad market boundaries remain suitable under tomorrow's more granular requirements?

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The rules are also tightening around certificate cancellation

Another change affects companies using PPAs and green electricity supply contracts.

A common assumption has been that if a contract states that electricity is renewable, additional certificate management may not always be necessary.

RE100's 2025 Technical Criteria tighten that position.

For markets where EACs are in common use, grid PPAs and electricity supply contracts will need the associated EACs to be cancelled for the buyer's claim. The requirement applies to RE100 reporting through the 2027 CDP disclosure cycle.

This makes ownership of the environmental attribute increasingly important.

A corporate buyer can purchase electricity physically from a renewable generator but lose the renewable electricity claim if the associated certificate is sold to someone else.

For procurement teams, electricity and environmental attributes therefore need to be contracted together or coordinated explicitly.

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Not every I-REC will satisfy every corporate target

Certificate issuance under the I-REC system establishes that an environmental attribute has been created and tracked according to the applicable registry rules.

Corporate programs can impose additional requirements.

RE100, for example, generally applies a 15-year commissioning or re-powering limit to renewable generation used toward member targets, subject to specific exemptions. It also prohibits renewable electricity claims from generation involving coal co-firing under its updated criteria.

This means two I-RECs from the same country can have different usefulness to a corporate buyer depending on the underlying project.

Technology, commissioning year, geographic location and certification can therefore affect demand and value.

For traders and procurement teams, the market increasingly needs to be considered by specification rather than simply by certificate volume.

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Mexico shows why local market knowledge matters

Mexico illustrates the interaction between international certificate systems and national environmental markets.

Mexico has been authorized for I-REC issuance since 2017, with Normex currently accredited as the local issuer.

Mexico also operates its Clean Energy Certificate system, or CEL.

To address potential double issuance, I-TRACK developed specific issuance procedures requiring relevant generators seeking I-REC issuance to demonstrate cancellation of corresponding CEL volumes under the applicable conditions.

This demonstrates why international procurement cannot be managed purely from a global certificate database.

Local regulatory instruments, national tracking systems and voluntary certificate schemes can interact. Buyers need to know which environmental attributes have been issued, cancelled or retained before making a claim.

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Global procurement should be managed as a portfolio

A multinational company should therefore avoid setting a target such as "buy enough certificates to cover global electricity consumption" without first mapping its operations.

The starting point should be annual electricity consumption by country and, increasingly, by grid region.

The company can then identify the applicable certificate system for each market.

U.S. and Canadian demand may be addressed through North American RECs. Mexican consumption may require Mexican I-RECs. Other international operations may require I-RECs, national certificates, Guarantees of Origin or other recognized systems depending on the location.

Procurement teams should then define additional specifications including generation technology, project age, vintage, location and target-framework eligibility.

Longer-term contracts should also anticipate the possibility that GHG Protocol's future deliverability requirements will narrow the geographic areas from which certificates can be sourced.

This approach creates a more resilient environmental commodity portfolio than purchasing globally interchangeable renewable attributes.

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The commercial impact

I-RECs are becoming an increasingly important tool for North American multinationals, but not because they replace U.S. or Canadian RECs.

Their value lies in providing standardized renewable electricity attributes across international markets where North American companies operate.

The commercial opportunity therefore sits at the intersection of global procurement and local certificate markets.

Companies need to determine which certificates correspond to each electricity load, which target frameworks apply, whether the attributes have been properly transferred and retired, and whether today's procurement structure can withstand tighter geographic and temporal requirements in the future.

For producers, this creates differentiated demand for certificates by country, technology, project age and eventually time of generation. For buyers, it increases the importance of portfolio construction rather than simply purchasing the lowest-cost renewable certificate available.

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AFS Commodities supports corporate buyers sourcing renewable electricity attributes across multiple markets. If your organization operates across the United States, Canada, Mexico or international markets and needs to structure a portfolio of RECs, I-RECs or other Energy Attribute Certificates, contact AFS Commodities to discuss market availability, eligibility requirements and cross-border procurement strategies.