The goal: standardizing carbon emissions accounting and reporting
The ClimateWorks Foundation has announced the Carbon Call, an effort by twenty organizations including businesses like Microsoft, the Linux Foundation and KPMG. The goal is to develop reliable and accurate carbon emissions accounting, something the sponsoring organization and signatories agree is lacking presently.
“Today, carbon accounting suffers from data quality issues, measurement and reporting inconsistencies, siloed platforms, and infrastructure challenges. This makes it difficult to compare, combine and share reliable data, particularly for companies,” said The ClimateWorks Foundation.
Other organizations participating in the initiative include Capricorn Investment Group, Climate Change AI, Corporate Leaders Group Europe, Global Carbon Project, Global Council for Science and the Environment, International Science Council, LF Energy, Mila, Skoll Foundation, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, United Nations Environment Programme (collaborating organization) and United Nations Foundation.
“Accurate carbon accounting is fundamental to holding polluters accountable and knowing where focus on climate action is most needed,” said Surabi Menon, Vice President of Global Intelligence for The ClimateWorks Foundation.
Lucas Joppa, Microsoft’s chief environmental officer, said that transparency and an interoperable system to track, report and compare greenhouse emissions simply doesn’t exist now.
“Carbon Call is a collaboration to enable reliability among the multiple, different GHG accounting ledgers — from the corporate to the national to the planetary,” said Joppa.
The participating businesses and organizations will advance standards for universal carbon accounting to “enable expanded access to reliable GHG emissions and removal data, and strengthen the interoperability of digital accounting infrastructures,” according to a statement. The signatories commit to reporting greenhouse gas emissions and offset information comprehensively and transparently, said The ClimateWorks Foundation.
Telcos, other hyperscalers missing from The Carbon Call
Microsoft is notably the only hyperscaler participating in The Carbon Call. No network operators signed on for the initial statement. But that doesn’t mean that sustainability and efficiency are not top of mind issues for the telecom business. As operators pivot to new 5G and IoT service offerings, efficiency is key.
In fact, 5G itself may play a significant role in reducing the U.S.’s carbon emissions. That’s the conclusion of a recent study commissioned by the CTIA. The study shows that 5G can reduce carbon emissions by 20% in the U.S. by 2025. The study exampled use cases for 5G in transportation and cities, manufacturing, buildings, agriculture, living and health.
In a new report co-authored by the staffs of RCR Wireless News and Enterprise IoT Insights, we examine the green credentials of 5G and IoT both as technology sets unto themselves, and as a powerful complementary technologies.
Download the report “The green credentials of 5G and IoT” here.
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