The International Chamber of Commerce and Carbon Measures recently announced the first group of experts appointed to a new Technical Expert Panel on Carbon Accounting, a body tasked with designing a globally applicable system for measuring carbon emissions at company and product level. The panel brings together senior figures from industry, academia, finance, civil society and technology, with further members expected by February and formal work beginning in March.
Behind the institutional language of the announcement lies a problem that has quietly shaped global climate action for decades: the world still lacks a single, reliable way to measure emissions across complex supply chains. Carbon accounting exists, but it is fragmented, inconsistent and often inaccessible to developing economies. Companies can claim climate progress using different methodologies, regulators struggle to compare data across jurisdictions, and investors face uncertainty when evaluating the real environmental impact of projects.
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The new panel aims to change this by developing a ledger-based system capable of tracking emissions from raw materials to finished products. In practical terms, this means that the carbon footprint of a tonne of cement, a kilogram of cocoa or a manufactured textile could be measured in a comparable way, regardless of where it is produced or traded. For global markets, this could reshape how products are priced, how trade policies are designed and how climate finance is allocated.
For Africa, the implications are particularly significant because the continent sits at the intersection of global supply chains and climate vulnerability. Africa contributes roughly 3 to 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it hosts a substantial share of the world’s raw material production and agricultural exports. Minerals such as cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo, lithium from Zimbabwe, copper from Zambia and bauxite from Guinea are critical to global energy transition technologies. Agricultural commodities from West and East Africa feed global food markets. If emissions accounting becomes more precise and embedded in trade rules, the carbon profile of these products will increasingly influence market access and competitiveness.
In recent years, global climate finance has grown rapidly, but access remains uneven. According to the Climate Policy Initiative, global climate finance reached over USD 1.3 trillion in 2022, while Africa received less than 5 percent of these flows despite facing some of the most severe climate risks. One reason is data. Investors and multilateral institutions often require detailed emissions metrics to justify funding decisions. Many African firms and governments lack the technical infrastructure to generate such data at scale. A standardized global framework could reduce this gap, but it could also expose new inequalities if African producers are unable to comply with emerging measurement requirements.
Consider manufacturing. African industrial sectors are expanding, but they often operate with older technologies and limited monitoring systems. If global buyers begin demanding product-level carbon data, firms without measurement capacity could be excluded from value chains. Conversely, those that can demonstrate lower emissions, such as renewable-powered manufacturing in Morocco or Ethiopia, could gain a competitive advantage. The difference will depend less on rhetoric about sustainability and more on the availability of verifiable data.
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The financial sector faces a similar shift. Banks and investors increasingly link capital allocation to environmental performance. A harmonized carbon accounting system could make it easier to compare African projects with those in Europe or Asia, potentially unlocking new investment flows. At the same time, it could intensify scrutiny of high-emission sectors such as cement, steel and fossil fuel extraction. For countries like Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt, where industrial emissions are relatively high compared to regional peers, the transparency created by such a framework could influence policy choices and fiscal strategies.
The composition of the panel itself reflects the global nature of the challenge. It includes leaders from technology companies, financial institutions, heavy industry and academic research. While none of the initial members are from Africa, the framework they develop will inevitably shape African economies. This raises questions about representation and contextual relevance. Carbon accounting methodologies designed in advanced economies may not fully reflect the realities of informal markets, smallholder agriculture or fragmented infrastructure that characterize many African systems.
The timing of the initiative aligns with broader shifts in global climate governance. Carbon markets are expanding, border carbon taxes are being discussed in Europe, and corporations are under pressure to disclose environmental impacts with greater precision. In this context, measurement becomes power. Those who define how emissions are counted also influence who bears the cost of decarbonization and who benefits from the transition.
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