Practical guide to Huella de Carbono Perú: registration, levels and verification

Registering on Huella de Carbono Perú is quick and simple: fill in a form with your tax ID, address, CIIU code and the details of a coordinator, attach a sworn declaration signed by the legal representative, and MINAM issues access credentials within a maximum of five working days. The hard part comes afterwards: gathering a full year of activity data, passing verification by an accredited body and sustaining the reduction over time.

This guide walks through the process level by level, with the data you need to have in hand and the points where things most often get stuck. Everything described here is governed by article 55 of the regulations to Peru's Framework Law on Climate Change and by the Guide for the operation of the tool, approved by Ministerial Resolution 185-2021-MINAM.

Before you start: three decisions

1. Who the user organisation is. Registration is by legal entity with a tax ID. If your group has several companies, decide whether to register the parent, each company or a specific unit, because that fixes the organisational boundaries for everything that follows.
2. Which period you will report. A period is one calendar year. The earliest accepted is 2010. Starting with a recent year that is closed in the accounts saves trouble.
3. Who coordinates. The form asks for a person coordinating GHG management on the platform. You can optionally name someone for information quality and someone to collect the data.

Step 1: registration

Submit the form available on the platform, with the tax ID (RUC), address, CIIU revision 4 code, a short description of your activities and the coordinator's contact details, plus the sworn declaration signed by the legal representative. MINAM reviews the content and, within a maximum of five working days, either issues access credentials or gives reasons for rejection. If your application is rejected, you can apply again.

Step 2: the Measurement level

This means estimating and reporting the period's emissions on the platform. The report is generated automatically and a certificate is issued at the end. The calculation follows Peruvian Technical Standard NTP ISO 14064-1:2020, and the real work is assembling activity data by source. Here is the minimum worth collecting and documenting before you sit down to load it:

• Stationary combustion: diesel, natural gas, LPG or biomass consumed in boilers, furnaces and generators, in physical units, with supporting invoices.
• Mobile combustion: litres of fuel used by the owned or leased fleet, by vehicle type and fuel.
• Fugitive emissions: refrigerant top-ups in air conditioning and cold rooms, with gas type and kilograms replaced.
• Purchased electricity: kWh by supply point and site, reconciled with the year's bills.
• Other indirect sources: depending on the boundary you set, business travel, freight transport, waste, water or purchased goods and services.

If you come from working with the GHG Protocol, the logic is the same as scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3, using the ISO 14064-1 category terminology. If you are unsure how the two frameworks fit together, read the comparison of GHG Protocol and ISO 14064-1.

Step 3: the Verification level

A third party now enters. You submit, through the platform, the verification statement for your inventory and the corporate GHG report, both covering the same period you measured. The statement must be issued by a conformity assessment body accredited nationally or internationally under NTP ISO 14065:2016, and must contain at least:

• The body's name.
• The emissions measurement period.
• Organisational and operational boundaries.
• The corresponding GHG emissions.
• Excluded emission sources, with the reason for each.
• GHG mitigation actions, where they exist.

The information in the statement must match what you reported on the platform and the inventory you submitted. If it is not validated, you can resubmit the documentation.

A little-known shortcut: if your organisation was already being verified by an accredited body before joining the platform, you can validate that statement by sworn declaration, provided the emission sources and activity data in it match what you report on Huella de Carbono Perú.

Step 4: the Reduction level

Cutting emissions for one year is not enough. The guide requires two conditions at once:

1. Reaching the Verification level in two consecutive periods, with at least one mitigation action implemented in the most recent one.
2. Reducing the value of at least one emission reduction performance indicator.

The calendar consequence is the one that catches people out: from first measurement to the third level takes at least two full annual cycles with external verification in both. Plan and budget for it from the start.

Step 5: the Reduction+ level

Reached through any one of three routes, and one is enough:

Where people get stuck

• Trying to fix data too late. A request to update the inventory, the sources or the activity data is only admissible while the organisation has not yet reached the Verification level for that period. After that, the door closes. Review the inventory before stepping up to the second level, not after.
• Mismatches between the body's statement and what is on the platform. The statement must reflect the same boundaries, sources and figures. If the inventory was built in a separate spreadsheet and then keyed in by hand, the mismatch almost always shows up.
• Unjustified exclusions. The statement must list excluded sources and the reason. Excluding a source because “there was no data” is the most common cause of being sent back.
• Assuming offsets get you to the third level. They do not. Neutralisation belongs to the fourth level and presupposes having reached Reduction first. Certificates must also come from projects authorised by the Peruvian State.
• Forgetting your enforcement status. MINAM will not award the diploma or seal if the organisation has an outstanding penalty or coercive fine from OEFA, an outstanding penalty or corrective measure from OSINFOR, or a first-instance conviction for environmental offences. Check this before announcing the recognition internally.
• Fleet and refrigerant data. These are the two sources most often undocumented: litres per vehicle and fluorinated gas top-ups tend to live in workshop service orders, not in the accounts.

How many organisations reach each level

MINAM's own figures as of August 2026 show the size of the funnel: of 3,010 registered organisations, 2,058 had measured their emissions, 779 had verified them, 171 had demonstrated an effective reduction and 78 reached Reduction+. In other words, roughly one in four registered organisations gets to verification. That is where the filter sits, and also where the differentiation lies if your company competes in tenders or sells to international buyers.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Huella de Carbono Perú cost?

Using the platform is free. The real cost is verification by an accredited body, contracted separately, plus the internal time spent collecting data.

Can I go straight to the second level?

No. Verification covers the same period you measured and reported at the first level, so the order is fixed.

What if I made a mistake in an activity data point?

You can request an update by email to the platform administrator, stating the reason and attaching supporting evidence, provided you have not yet reached the Verification level for that period.

Does it satisfy the SMV Corporate Sustainability Report?

It does not replace it, but it helps. Annex (10180) asks whether the company measures its emissions and for the third-party document evidencing that measurement, and a conformity assessment body's verification statement answers that question. The detail is on the page about the SMV Corporate Sustainability Report.

Where does this fit among Peru's other obligations?

In the guide to environmental and sustainability regulation for companies in Peru, which sets out the full reporting calendar.

If your bottleneck is gathering activity data and keeping it traceable back to the invoice so the verifier does not send the inventory back, start with the carbon footprint solution.