Global Experts Unite to Forge New Era of Carbon Accounting

PARIS & NEW YORK – January 19, 2026 – A major international initiative to standardize and verify carbon emissions data has been launched, promising to bring unprecedented clarity to corporate climate claims. The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the business coalition Carbon Measures have announced the first members of a Technical Expert Panel tasked with creating a revolutionary carbon accounting system.

This new framework aims to move beyond today's often-opaque methods by establishing a ledger-based system capable of tracking a product's carbon footprint with accuracy and verifiability across the entire global value chain. The move is seen as a direct response to growing demands from investors, regulators, and consumers for trustworthy data to combat greenwashing and accelerate genuine decarbonization.

Addressing a Critical Gap in Climate Action

For years, the world of corporate carbon accounting has been dominated by frameworks like the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, which provides essential standards for companies to measure their emissions. However, these systems face significant challenges, particularly when it comes to the vast and complex web of indirect emissions known as Scope 3.

Scope 3 emissions, which encompass everything from raw material extraction to the use and disposal of a company's products, often represent up to 90% of a company's total carbon footprint. Accurately measuring these emissions is notoriously difficult. Companies frequently rely on industry averages and estimations rather than actual, primary data from their thousands of suppliers and partners. This lack of granular data creates a major blind spot.

The result is a landscape where comparability between products and companies is difficult, and the risk of greenwashing—where environmental claims are unsubstantiated or misleading—is high. Current reporting often lacks transparency on the assumptions and data sources used, making independent verification a formidable challenge. This initiative aims to address these fundamental gaps by building a system designed for the specific purpose of tracking product-level data from source to shelf.

A New Blueprint for Trust: The Ledger-Based Approach

The cornerstone of the panel's work will be the development of a ledger-based system. While the exact technology has not been specified, the term strongly implies the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT), such as blockchain, to create a secure, transparent, and immutable record of emissions data.

In such a system, each step in a product's journey—from the mining of raw materials to manufacturing, transportation, and final assembly—could have its associated carbon emissions recorded on a shared, unchangeable ledger. This would create a single source of truth for a product's carbon footprint, accessible to all permissioned parties in the supply chain. The key advantages are verifiability and data integrity. By cryptographically securing data at each point, the system would make it nearly impossible to alter emissions information retroactively, providing a robust defense against data manipulation.

This technological approach directly targets the shortcomings of current methods. Instead of relying on aggregated, often-outdated industry averages, it enables the use of real-time, activity-based data from individual suppliers. This would empower companies to accurately differentiate their low-carbon products from competitors' and give consumers and policymakers reliable information to drive decision-making.

The Architects of a Decarbonized Future

To ensure the system is both technically sound and practically applicable, the ICC and Carbon Measures have assembled a formidable group of global leaders. The inaugural members of the Technical Expert Panel represent a deliberate blend of expertise from industry, science, finance, and policy.

Notable appointees include Dr. Amy Luers, Head of Sustainability Science & Innovation at Microsoft; Jakob Stausholm, former CEO of mining giant Rio Tinto; Koushik Chatterjee, Executive Director and CFO of Tata Steel Limited; and Alicia Seiger, a climate finance expert from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The panel also includes leaders from Banco Santander, Stanford University, and Japan's Mitsui & Co., reflecting the global and cross-disciplinary nature of the challenge.

“Each of these experts brings deep technical knowledge and a long-standing commitment to reducing emissions,” said Amy Brachio, CEO of Carbon Measures. “The first group reflects a shared ambition to establish a system that will accurately differentiate low-carbon products, enabling policy and market competition to accelerate meaningful emissions reductions.”

All members will serve in a personal capacity, lending their independent expertise to the project. The selection process, led by the ICC, is designed to ensure broad geographical representation and technical depth. Andrew Wilson, Deputy Secretary-General of the ICC, noted the exceptional range of experience on the panel, calling it “the diversity of expertise that will be required to unlock carbon accounting as a tool to accelerate decarbonization across the economy.”

Reshaping Markets and Policy

The implications of a successful, globally adopted product-level carbon accounting system are profound. By providing a verifiable way to distinguish low-carbon goods, the framework could fundamentally reshape competitive dynamics. Companies that invest in decarbonizing their supply chains would have a tangible way to prove their advantage, potentially commanding premium prices or winning contracts with climate-conscious buyers.

For policymakers, such a system could become the backbone for more sophisticated climate regulations. It could enable the implementation of precise carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAMs), targeted green public procurement policies, and data-driven incentives for industrial decarbonization. It would move policy from blunt, sector-wide instruments to nuanced, product-specific measures.

The strong global interest in the panel underscores its perceived importance. In response to a high volume of applications, the ICC and Carbon Measures have extended the submission deadline for additional experts to February 15, 2026. The panel is expected to hold its first meeting later this quarter, beginning the complex task of defining the principles and real-world applications of a system that could become the new global standard for climate accountability.