A coalition of major global corporations — including BlackRock Inc’s Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), ExxonMobil, and Banco Santander SA — has launched a new initiative to overhaul how carbon emissions are measured across industries.
The alliance, known as Carbon Measures, also counts BASF SE, EY, Linde plc, and Mitsui & Co among its founding members. The group aims to develop a framework that attributes carbon emissions directly to their sources and eliminates double-counting, a flaw critics say has long plagued existing standards.
Amy Brachio, the organisation’s chief executive and former global vice-chair for sustainability at EY, said the initiative will also design methodologies to measure the carbon intensity of specific products. “If you’re buying a tonne of steel, you need to know how much carbon went into making it — so that you’re not just buying the steel, but also its carbon liability,” she explained.
The move comes as global regulators tighten climate reporting requirements, including the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. Accurate, transparent data on emissions is becoming essential for investors, who increasingly reward low-carbon production.
Supporters of the effort include Santander chair Ana Botín, who described reliable emissions data as “the foundation for meaningful climate action.” Air Liquide CEO François Jackow said product-level carbon standards will allow investors “to reward low-carbon solutions.”
The initiative represents a significant departure from the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, the prevailing global standard introduced in the 1990s. While proponents of the protocol argue that double-counting encourages broad accountability, detractors — including ExxonMobil — say it distorts true emissions data and hinders effective carbon management.
Brachio said that achieving “precise and comparable data” has long been a “holy grail” for emissions accounting. “The current system simply won’t be sufficient going forward,” she added.
Other founding members of Carbon Measures include Vale SA, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Bayer AG, Honeywell International, Nucor Corp, NextEra Energy, and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said the first step to cutting emissions “is to know where they are coming from — and today, we don’t have an accurate system to do this.”
