Leading Scientists Say Carbon Accounting Isn't Doing the Job It Was Built For
In a peer-reviewed academic paper backed by Cambridge spin-out Neutreeno, leading researchers who have advised the UN, the White House and international standard-setters show that the data behind corporate climate targets is broken, and how to fix it at this critical moment.
CAMBRIDGE, England, July 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- This June, more than 10,000 people died in a single European heatwave. Wildfires are burning across southern Europe again. And this month, the worst air quality of any city on Earth belonged not to Delhi or Beijing, but to Toronto, choked by wildfire smoke.
These scientists say corporate carbon accounting, the system the world relies on to cut emissions, is failing us. More than three-quarters of a company's emissions sit in its supply chain, and that's exactly where the data falls apart. They rely on industry averages that can be off by tenfold: the equivalent of reporting $10 million in revenue when the real figure is $100 million. Nobody would accept that with financial reporting, so why should it be any different for emissions data, where the stakes are far higher? That same highly uncertain data can tick the compliance box, but no one trusts it enough to act on it, so nothing gets done. "We should be measuring carbon for one reason, to reduce it. Right now, we can't. The system is broken," said Dr. Spencer Brennan, lead author and founder of Neutreeno.
It's failing at the worst moment. Governments on both sides of the Atlantic are pulling back when people need them to step up. The EU is letting up on emissions rules governing over 10,000 factories and power stations. And in February, the EPA reversed the finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health, the very basis for regulating them in the first place. With that oversight fading, few companies are on track to hit their climate targets, and none are truly held to account.
Their fix, the CSA Principles, is a simple and achievable framework that aligns with current standards, but redefines what good emissions data looks like. The data has to be all three things at once: credible, backed by quality metrics that show where the data can be trusted and where it cannot; scalable, able to move across entire supply chains; and actionable, offering concrete ways to change how products are actually made. They are calling on policymakers, regulators, investors and businesses to adopt the principles before the window to act closes.
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