The title says it all…
We wrote at least a dozen reports, notes, and working papers on financed emissions and ’emissions performance accounting’ over the past +10 years…
…and concluded that the limitations of this metric were insurmountable and effectively ‘unfixable’ – in particular and specifically related to allocation principles (i.e. how do you allocate corporate emissions to financial portfolios)…
Well…
…we were wrong.
If you want to find out why and how, read our technical note here.
It is never easy to admit you’re wrong. But nobody scores 100% in research. If you do research and are never wrong, you are not doing it right…
While we have not identified any technical errors in our research, we have made analytical mistakes and thus have been too narrow-minded about the opportunity for emissions-based target-setting.
We encourage our stakeholders to read our note, and the Austria Green Finance Alliance consultation paper that sparked this conversation, providing a novel approach to emissions performance accounting that addresses some of the limitations we considered insurmountable.
As always, give us feedback, tell us if you agree / disagree, spread the word, and – on this topic – respond to the Austrian consultation process (Deadline: August 16th)