Carbon Accounting's Crisis of Credibility: Experts Call for U.S.-Led Reform

At the Concordia Annual Summit, a panel of global experts laid bare the structural dysfunction plaguing carbon markets — and offered a roadmap out, anchored by a provocative proposal: a new U.S. emissions accounting board modeled on the SEC. The session revealed how competing interests among governments, corporations, and standard-setting bodies have left the world's primary tool for fighting climate change dangerously unreliable.

• Oxford professor compares carbon market credibility crisis to 1929 stock market crash, argues scandal should catalyze creation of standardized emissions accounting
• Panel proposes U.S. emissions accounting board within the Department of Commerce, framing it as a bipartisan economic advantage
• CEO of Surcarbono warns fragmented global frameworks are eating up time the climate cannot afford, calls for convergence
• New York Climate Exchange CEO blames "snowflake" companies, "purist" scientists, and "ostrich" governments for carbon market dysfunction

A panel moderated by Katherine Clay, lead energy analyst at Washington Post Intelligence, brought together three experts at the intersection of climate policy, carbon finance, and global governance to confront a deceptively simple question: Why can't the world agree on how to count carbon?