Carbon Accounting Alliance calls for sector standardisation and regulation to support the transition to net zero

The Carbon Accounting Alliance (CAA) represents organisations that measure and report greenhouse gas emissions, working together to share best practice and promote the development of robust standards. The coalition includes consultancies, software companies, auditors and certifying bodies who measure greenhouse gas emissions for more than 23,000 organisations.

The impetus for the alliance is a shared belief that collaboration is vital when it comes to actively engaging industry, policy makers, regulators and other international bodies, as well as sharing learnings across the industry. The alliance anticipates identifying common barriers affecting carbon accounting and will leverage its collective voice to drive policy change that can remove barriers to measurement and maximise opportunities for industry.

Campaigning for change

The Alliance will campaign on ensuring carbon accounting is a key feature of governments’ green skills and jobs policies to meet growing demands for the sector’s services. Most recently, the CAA has engaged the UK government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), asking it to set a policy-driven timeline and deadline for businesses to report at least Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions on an annual basis to deliver emissions transparency. To support this, the CAA is calling for mandatory data sharing of energy, water and waste between commercial landlords and tenants, the lack of which is a common barrier to measurement. The Alliance is also pushing for education and training to focus on carbon accounting skills to fill crucial demand gaps from businesses for carbon emissions measurement, reductions and strategy.

Driving standards up

Richard Sheane, Director at 3Keel and Climate Change Special Advisor, explains why he sees membership of the Alliance as critical for 3Keel: “Action on climate change is only meaningful if it has impact, and without measurement and reporting, we simply can’t know or show whether progress is being made. I want 3Keel to be part of professionalising the measurement industry, so that we can better meet the task of helping organisations reduce their carbon footprint.”

3Keel’s expertise

Being part of the Alliance is an obvious step for 3Keel, as members of the team have been delivering measurement analyses since 2005 and have helped shape the development of leading standards in this area – including the GHG Protocol and the product carbon footprinting standard PAS2050.

Richard explains that “we understand the reality of ensuring emissions data is reliable: without reliability there is no trust and without trust the data will be ignored by decision-makers.”
3Keel supports clients at all stages of an organisation’s climate action journey – from developing a clear understanding of emissions ‘hotspots’ to shaping a client’s strategic approach to climate change. Recent examples include our work with John Lewis Partnership to create a Net Zero Farms strategy and with Fuller’s to get science-based targets officially validated by the Science-Based Targets Initiative.

Find out more about the CAA here: https://www.carbonaccountingalliance.com/about