The Network for Greening the Financial System has released a detailed overview of the state of emissions data and ways to improve them. It is much more important than it may appear at first glance. That’s because measurement and reporting are designed to guide how the data are being used, but no single metric or methodology provides a complete guide to Net Zero or Paris-alignment. 

The purpose of climate disclosures is to help users of its reporting to evaluate the degree to which the entity is protecting itself against future risks associated with its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from climate change, nature loss, and the achievement or failure to see through a Just Transition. The numbers only tell one part of that story, even if they are perfectly consistent in what is being reported between different entities.

The much more important information comes through identifying how much an entity can and expects to be involved in influencing changes to the emissions it reports today for future periods. If they can clearly break down the emissions they report into buckets of emissions based on what they can and cannot influence, and then explain how they plan to influence others to reduce in line with their targets, then the report data become much more powerful.

Instead of being just another metric to report, it becomes enriched with both information about the present and guidance about the future, which brings both value creation potential and accountability.