Participating organizations and signatories to focus on solving companies’ carbon emissions and removal accounting challenges for a net zero future

Over 20 leading organizations on Thursday announced an initiative to accelerate the development of reliable and interoperable carbon emissions accounting, which is necessary to help the world reach net zero by midcentury. The Carbon Call mobilizes collective action, investment and resources from scientific, corporate, philanthropic and intergovernmental organizations to enable access to data and science that is reliable and up to date and can be easily exchanged among carbon accounting systems.

Reliable measurement and accounting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is critical to climate accountability and attribution. According to an analysis by The Washington Post, the gap in underreported GHG emissions “ranges from at least 8.5 billion to as high as 13.3 billion tons a year.” Today, carbon accounting suffers from data quality issues, measurement and reporting inconsistencies, siloed platforms, and infrastructure challenges. This makes it difficult to compare, combine and share reliable data, particularly for companies.

The Carbon Call uncovers and addresses gaps in existing global carbon accounting systems, focusing on carbon removal and land sector, methane and indirect emissions. The Carbon Call will work collectively to identify where more accurate information is needed to improve reliability and advance interoperability by design — both in carbon accounting reports (or ledgers) and the data ecosystems that support them.

The Carbon Call is hosted by ClimateWorks Foundation, and participating organizations include Capricorn Investment Group, Climate Change AI, Corporate Leaders Group Europe, Global Carbon Project, Global Council for Science and the Environment, International Science Council, LF Energy, Linux Foundation, Microsoft, Mila, Skoll Foundation, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, United Nations Environment Programme (collaborating organization), and United Nations Foundation. Participating organizations of the Carbon Call work to advance the development of universal accounting methodological standards, enable expanded access to reliable GHG emissions and removal data, and strengthen the interoperability of digital accounting infrastructures.

Signatories to the Carbon Call support the enabling conditions needed for a more reliable global system of interoperable carbon accounting reports (or ledgers). To that end, signatories commit to report GHG emissions and offset information comprehensively, including all scopes and classes of GHG emissions, annually and transparently. Signatories include Capricorn Investment Group, EY, GSK, KPMG, Microsoft, and Wipro.

The outputs of the coalition will be widely available, and organizations are encouraged to learn more and sign on by visiting www.carboncall.org.

Source: Microsoft news