In this article by Angeli Mehta for Ethical Corporation / Thomson Reuters, the author explores the growing debate around global carbon accounting standards and the emergence of Carbon Measures, a new Exxon-backed initiative promoting a product-level “E-ledgers” approach to emissions accounting.

The article highlights concerns from investors, businesses, and sustainability organisations that competing carbon accounting frameworks could fragment the market, increase compliance costs, and weaken comparability and investor confidence at a time when consistent climate disclosure is becoming increasingly important.

Rémy Estran-Fraioli, CEO of Scientific Climate Ratings, notes that investors generally seek to understand total climate transition risk exposure across the full value chain, including downstream emissions. While accurate Scope 3 data remains challenging, he suggests that approaches such as Carbon Measures’ E-ledgers could complement existing frameworks by improving the quality and traceability of emissions data over time.

As Rémy notes:
“There could even be a virtuous loop over time, where more traceable, transaction-level data from approaches like Carbon Measures’ E-ledger helps improve the quality of Scope 3 estimates, which in turn strengthens broader frameworks such as the GHG Protocol.”

At the same time, he cautions that improving accounting precision should not come at the expense of capturing the full economic reality of climate transition risks.

Read the full article here.