Carbon accounting may be the most important climate fight you've never heard about

illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day, reviewed by our editorial team. Read the full piece on TIME News or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: Carbon accounting is emerging as a major battleground in climate policy, as businesses and experts debate how emissions should be measured and who should be held responsible for them
• An Aspen Institute summit brought together academics, NGOs and industry representatives to discuss reforms to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP), the widely used framework for corporate emissions reporting

🔭 The context: The GHGP divides emissions into three categories: Scope 1 covers direct operational emissions, Scope 2 covers purchased electricity, heating and cooling, and Scope 3 covers emissions across a company’s value chain
• Critics argue that this system can result in double-counting. An alternative, known as e-ledgers, would track emissions through a product’s lifecycle, assigning each unit of emissions only once
• However, this approach would require widespread participation across entire supply chains and could shift more responsibility for emissions from fossil fuels onto consumers

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Reliable carbon accounting helps ensure that corporate climate claims reflect genuine emissions reductions rather than accounting choices
• The rules will influence renewable energy investment, corporate decarbonisation strategies and the credibility of progress towards global climate goals

⏭️ What’s next: The two approaches may eventually complement one another, with e-ledgers tracking product-level emissions and the GHGP supporting company-wide reporting
• Their development could shape climate disclosure requirements in California and the European Union, as well as how businesses measure and prioritise emissions reductions

💬 One quote: The article identifies the central question driving the debate: “who is responsible for each ton of carbon emissions?”

📈 One stat: 3 scopes — the GHGP’s framework categorises emissions as Scope 1 (direct operations), Scope 2 (purchased energy) and Scope 3 (value-chain emissions)

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