A new peer-reviewed paper backed by Cambridge spin-out Neutreeno argues that corporate carbon accounting is fundamentally broken. The researchers, who have advised the UN and the White House, say that over 75% of a company's emissions sit in its supply chain, but the data used to track them relies on industry averages that can be off by tenfold. This makes the numbers useless for driving actual emission reductions. The paper proposes the CSA Principles, a framework requiring emissions data to be credible, scalable, and actionable. The goal is to replace vague averages with quality metrics that show where data can be trusted, apply across entire supply chains, and point to concrete changes in how products are made. The authors are calling on policymakers and businesses to adopt these principles as government oversight weakens in the EU and US.
