Conference Agenda

Welcoming remarks & state of the industry

A warm welcome from CAA co-founders with a mindfulness exercise and scene setting for the day. This will include a summary of some of the key challenges, insights and statistics on the state of the carbon accounting industry, following a 3-month research project led by the CAA.

Where is corporate net zero heading?

Five years on from the SBTi Net Zero Standard, the consensus is converging and evolving to respond to the diverse and practical considerations that companies face in setting out towards their targets. The ISO Net Zero Standard, expected for draft consultation in 2026, represents international consensus on the definition of net zero for organisations, a definition aligned with the new SBTi Net Zero standard on target setting. These standards reflect significant and important improvements in the way we advise and support companies on their path to net zero.

At the same time, some challenges to independent consensus-based standards have emerged. New industry-backed advocacy groups like Carbon Measures are drawing both interest and backlash, and shining a light on product-based emissions accounting. Alongside this, a growing chorus of voices from academia, civil society and the private sector argues that corporate net zero standardisation must shift to recognise near-term action metrics alongside long-term emissions targets.

This panel brings together leading voices to explore the foundations: does organisational net zero still tally with country-level targets and the global carbon budget? How should the "net" be handled? Are the emerging standards converging on something coherent, or pulling in incompatible directions? And what does the next generation of net zero guidance need to get right?

Presentation & Q&A: in conversation with the standards

A candid conversation with the people behind the standards that underpin our work. An opportunity to hear directly from the GHG Protocol, SBTi and ISO about what is coming next and to put your questions to them.

Scope 3 decarbonisation: what's actually working?

An honest discussion on the tactics and strategies corporates are actually using to decarbonise their supply chain emissions, and which ones are delivering results. What have in-house sustainability and procurement teams tried, what has moved the needle, and what has quietly been abandoned?

Panellists will share candid experience across a range of supplier decarbonisation levers: environmental attribute certificates (e.g. green steel, sustainable aviation fuel, biogas certificates etc.), supplier engagement programmes, internal carbon pricing, low-carbon product incentives and green premiums, buying renewable energy certificates (RECs, GOs, I-RECs) on behalf of suppliers, preferential finance and more.

Small group discussions

Delegates will be divided into small groups of up to 10 people to discuss key questions and challenges faced in the carbon accounting industry today. Delegates must select their topic ahead of the event.

Topics include:

1. Assurance, audit, and verification readiness
2. Re-baselining and methodological change
3. Primary data and supplier engagement at scale
4. Communications and claims
5. Ongoing Emissions Responsibility (previously BVCM), carbon credits and carbon dioxide removal (CDR)
6. Emissions factors
7. FLAG / LSRS standards and emissions
8. Independent consultant best practices
9. Market-based instruments and EACs
10. Product carbon footprint methodologies
11. Professionalisation of carbon accounting
12. Software interoperability

PCF Clinic

Stuck on a tricky allocation question? Wrestling with patchy supplier data or conflicting methodology guidance? This clinic is built around the real PCF problems delegates bring through the door.

This hands-on clinic brings together a standards body, a technology provider and practitioners to work through real-world PCF challenges. Bring your questions on methodology, data sourcing, automation and supplier engagement, and leave with practical next steps.

How can we professionalise our industry whilst achieving the scale we need?

Carbon accounting is at a crossroads. Investors, regulators and boards increasingly expect emissions data to meet the same rigour as financial data. The launch of the RCAA professional register is a landmark step. But professionalisation creates a tension: the industry needs to scale rapidly to meet demand, yet higher standards risk creating bottlenecks. This session explores how we navigate that tension and what it means practically for everyone in the room, whether you are an independent consultant, an in-house sustainability lead, or a service provider trying to hire.

How can we responsibly leverage AI in carbon accounting?

AI is reshaping carbon accounting, but between the hype and the reality, what does it actually look like in practice? This session brings together a variety of voices to share real-world examples of how AI is being applied across emissions measurement, data quality, and reporting. Expect honest accounts of what is working, what is not, and where the technology genuinely accelerates progress versus where it introduces new risks around transparency and over-reliance on automated outputs.

Pragmatism over perfection: how do we make PCFs work at scale?

Product Carbon Footprints are supposed to be driving decarbonisation. Instead, for many companies, they have become a bottleneck: tangled in methodological debates, expensive, manual, and finished long after the design decisions they were meant to inform. What's the most pragmatic route to PCFs? What analysis is most useful to drive decarbonisation and when is it worth doing an LCA, vs. a quick PCF? What would it take for PCF data to aggregate reliably into a Scope 3 inventory? This session brings together a standards body, a technology provider, and a practitioner to ask what PCFs are actually for, and what has to change before the data starts changing decisions.

Which accounting method for which decision?

Corporate GHG inventories answer one question: what emissions should we attribute to this organisation? But that is a different question from: will this decision actually reduce emissions in the real world? In this session, Matthew walks through his thinking comparing attributional corporate accounting, consequential life cycle assessment, and project/policy-level accounting, using case studies to show where the three methods give strikingly different answers.

The session will also cover the GHG Protocol's proposals for "multi-statement" disclosures, including the introduction of a consequential statement alongside the traditional attributional inventory. What does this mean in practice and how should practitioners prepare?

Delegate-led unconference

A highly interactive delegate-led session where both the topics and the format are decided by popular vote. Delegates pitch ideas (30-second pitches), then vote on what to explore. The audience also chooses how each topic is discussed, whether as a panel, fishbowl, small group discussion, debate, or another format entirely. All under Chatham House Rule. Maximum 50 delegates. This session will not be recorded.

A delegate-led closing plenary

Andrew and Emilien will facilitate a delegate-led conclusion of the day, covering outcomes for us as a carbon accounting community and hopes for the future of the industry. A highly interactive closing plenary session you do not want to miss.