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Report | 2020

The Next Frontier of Carbon Accounting

A Unified Approach for Unlocking Systemic Change

By Charles CannonSuzanne GreeneThomas Koch BlankJordan L. CalderonPaolo Natali
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Pressure is building on companies to disclose the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that form both the direct and indirect carbon footprint of their operations. In aggregate, industrial supply chains are responsible for over 40 percent of all GHG emissions.

engergy value chain

This pressure for more accuracy and transparency comes from investors, policymakers, and consumers. Increasingly, each of these players demand that industrial companies prove better alignment with carbon reduction trajectories commensurate with the goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

There is no pathway to keep global warming to less than 1.5°C without abating emissions in industrial supply chains. This will require adequate data, and the best way to provide this is to standardize carbon accounting across the variety of protocols, platforms, and standards that exist today. This will be a cross-sector effort based on leveraging existing efforts, meeting the needs of critical use cases, aligning GHG and financial accounting, and providing supply-chain-specific guidance.