How Much Carbon Are We Emitting? We Don’t Really Know, but a New Coalition Aims to Narrow it Down

The world emits roughly 44.2 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions, according to an analysis of official United Nations figures. But that total could be missing an amount equivalent to the United States’ emissions, which would mean nearly 20% more. Or the overlooked emissions could be closer to China’s share, which would be more than a quarter of the total.

The truth is, we really don’t know. One major problem is that from countries to companies, approaches to counting emissions often differ enormously, as a Washington Post investigation laid out last year. With net zero corporate commitments proliferating—and many sparking serious skepticism—consistent guidelines are increasingly crucial.

An alliance announced last Thursday hopes to find some consensus—and ensure that everyone uses easily comparable methods. Called Carbon Call, it brings together more than 20 organizations with the goal of moving carbon accounting toward a common language that all tracking efforts can understand.

Philanthropy is one pillar of the alliance taking on this complex and contentious topic, which is essential to staying on track with carbon reductions targets and will play a role in guiding trillions in expected public and private investments in carbon mitigation over the coming years. ClimateWorks Foundation is the new group’s host, and funders such as the Skoll Foundation have signed on to provide technical support. Microsoft and ClimateWorks are funding the group’s launch.

“We’re never going to have one dashboard,” said Surabi Menon, vice president of global intelligence at ClimateWorks. “But making sure that the different systems are able to talk to each other… that can help us get a better sense globally of what is going on across the world in these areas where emissions are uncertain.”

The group will concentrate on what Menon described as the four “weak links” in current tracking—land use, methane, carbon removal and indirect emissions. It also aims to ensure data from a range of new emissions-tracking technologies, such as satellites like MethaneSAT, are integrated into tracking efforts and widely shared.

Carbon Call brings together institutions from around the globe that are working on accurately tallying carbon emissions, including Climate Change AI, Corporate Leaders Group Europe, Global Carbon Project, Global Council for Science and the Environment, International Science Council, Mila, and Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. It also includes international organizations like the United Nations Environment Programme and philanthropies including the Skoll, U.N., and Linux foundations.

Philanthropy’s role

Foundation support helps bankroll several of the individual tracking efforts that are brought together in this alliance. Funders are playing a classic role as a convener of disparate parties in this new effort. But the founding members emphasized philanthropy’s role in ensuring accountability—even though the focus is on corporations, rather than the nonprofit sector.

“We don’t fund companies, right, but we want to fund the calling-to-account part. And in order to do that, we need to have the right kind of systems in place to help create that visibility,” Menon said. “So I think that’s where the philanthropic part comes in. Because we’re not going to monetize any of this.”

For Skoll Foundation, which has long focused on data related to climate through grantmaking and its endowment’s investments, the potential of Carbon Call stood out, said Bruce Lowry, senior advisor at the foundation, where he leads the climate portfolio.

“If you’re able to kind of have apples-to-apples comparisons about different interventions… then you can actually make evidence-based decisions as a company, as a country, as an NGO. Where do you put the money, where are things missing?” he said.

Throughout the global economy, companies have not prioritized ensuring their data is compatible with the data produced by other sectors. For example, it’s important that the methane from burning forests can be compared to the methane from gas leaks, Lowry said.

Skoll’s role has not yet been defined, nor was it asked to contribute any funds to the effort, he said. It will likely work with its grantees to ensure their work is complementary. Like Menon, Lowry said he sees philanthropy serving as a sort of “Switzerland” in any disputes over carbon accounting.

“Anytime you have NGOs and corporations coming together, I think there’s always the fear that the corporations are going to sort of dominate and have an agenda and push their tech,” he said. “So I think there is real value in having philanthropy serving in a coordinating role and convening role and sitting as a kind of a non-financially invested” participant, aside from grantmaking, he added.

Accountability on corporate net zero promises is sorely needed. Climate pledges by 25 of the world’s largest companies would actually reduce their emissions by only 40% on average, not the complete reduction suggested by the use of phrases like “net zero” and “carbon neutral,” according to a report released this month by NewClimate Institute and Carbon Market Watch.

The business end of Carbon Call

The second goal of the new coalition is to get corporations to sign onto a pledge to report annually on all their greenhouse gas emissions, direct or indirect, commonly referred to as Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. Menon said they anticipated having 20 corporate signatories soon—conversations were ongoing when the alliance was launched—and they are shooting for at least 100 companies.

So far, there are just seven signatories. Three of the world’s biggest accounting and consulting firms have joined—Deloitte, KPMG and EY—along with Microsoft, pharmaceutical giant GSK and technology consulting firm Wipro. The other is Capricorn Investment Group, which manages the investments and organizations of Jeff Skoll, the billionaire internet entrepreneur whose foundation is an alliance partner.

“There are other pledges, like the Climate Pledge from Amazon, but some of these pledges go up to certain areas, certain parts of the emission value chain,” Menon said. “We want to make it broad, all around.”

The task ahead seems essential and wickedly complex, like so much about the climate emergency. The aim is to coordinate corporations, nations and organizations around the globe in support of standards that have immense repercussions for where decarbonization happens—and whether we do enough to ensure a livable planet. Menon acknowledges the challenge and emphasizes it’s just the first step.

“Well, you know, we have to try,” she said. “If we don’t bring the communities together to solve the challenges in some of this reporting and data collection, if we don’t create that right infrastructure, then we won’t have the energy to focus on the action that needs to be done.”

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