FAQ

Carbon Measures is a global coalition representing major businesses from diverse industries and geographies establishing a more accurate carbon accounting framework and driving market-based solutions to reduce emissions at the lowest cost.

Carbon Measures is calling for new policy that unlocks innovation, competition and the power of the market. Product-level carbon intensity standards, based on verifiable data informed by an enhanced emissions accounting framework, can create markets in which businesses are rewarded for investing in low-carbon production.

A full list is included on our Membership page

Carbon Measures’ membership includes leading businesses from diverse industries and geographies, many of which operate large, complex supply chains. The industrial sector accounts for a significant percentage of global emissions and has an important role to play in decarbonization. Their participation is essential to developing an accounting framework that works in real-world conditions. Carbon Measures is actively building a broad membership base to ensure the framework reflects diverse business models and operational realities, as well as sufficient coverage by industry to address the specific approaches required for product-level measurement. Member companies are committed to establishing a more accurate, ledger-based carbon emissions accounting system for tracking emissions and supporting compliance-based product-level carbon intensity standards that unlock innovation, competition, and lower-carbon manufacturing. Our members understand the importance of reducing global carbon emissions, and they’re committed to help reach that goal.

No. Carbon Measures was established to unlock demand for lower-carbon products. Carbon Measures is advocating for a decision-useful carbon accounting framework coupled with mandatory, product-level carbon intensity standards enforced by governments. Carbon Measures’ carbon accounting framework will establish the foundational data that will enable businesses to differentiate lower-carbon products and equip policymakers to establish clear, enforceable product-level carbon intensity standards.

Carbon accounting moves beyond reporting and disclosure of enterprise-level actions, to a verified system for calculating carbon emissions associated with products, companies, and countries. Similar to financial principles, it tracks where emissions come from by entity and how much is produced as they create their products.

Like financial principles that require an asset or liability to be only held by one organization at a time, a good carbon emissions framework ensures every tonne of carbon is counted once, accurately, and attributed to the right place. 

A ledger system enables companies and suppliers to accurately calculate and track carbon emissions of their product at each step of its lifecycle. Just as a standard accounting practice assigns the cost of materials and overhead to a finished product, carbon ledgers assign and keep track of the emissions of various outputs to the correct product. This allows for the associated carbon to follow the asset through the product lifecycle.

For example, the total emissions to make and transport each part of a car are transferred to the emissions value of the finished car – avoiding double counting and gaps in emissions.

The framework will be developed by an independent Technical Expert Panel co-launched by Carbon Measures and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The panel will apply sound science and financial-accounting principles to enable a ledger-based carbon accounting system that is more precise and addresses existing information gaps. The panel will include experts from academia, industry, financial accounting, attestation, technology, chemistry, engineering, and civil society, supported by an Advisory Group focused on real-world feasibility and implementation.

A product-level carbon intensity standard sets a maximum level of emissions allowed per unit of a product – for example, CO2 per ton of steel or per watt of electricity. It’s a mandatory standard that all producers selling into a market must meet.  

Governments can make the standard stricter as technology improves, contributing to systematic decreases in allowed carbon emissions per unit of a product and, by proxy, carbon emissions at large, while meeting demand.

Product-level carbon intensity standards level the playing field, reward innovation, and ensure progress is real and measurable.

The work of Carbon Measures will result in a carbon emissions accounting framework rooted in financial-accounting principles to provide accurate, verifiable, product-level data. This level of specificity and comparability is required for product-level differentiation.

Reporting frameworks like the GHG Protocol and others are widely used for voluntary corporate inventory disclosure, but they weren’t designed to track product-level emissions through the supply chain or distinguish products with different carbon intensities. To support innovation and competition across supply chains, markets need accurate, product-level data that can be delivered through a ledger-based carbon accounting framework.

No. While Scope 3 reporting has played a role in voluntary upstream and downstream emissions disclosure, it leads to double counting and indeterminate accounting of emissions due to estimations and assumptions.

Companies may continue to provide their Scope 3 emissions on a voluntary basis, even as they adopt a ledger-based approach to product-level carbon accounting.

Ultimately, a ledger-based carbon accounting framework in which entities only account for emissions on a gate-to-gate basis can be developed to account for emissions across the full value chain, allowing for even better visibility into emissions without the challenges of multiple counting of those emissions.