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Details
- Global
PCAF is designed for global application across the financial industry. It can be applied by any financial institution (banks, asset managers, insurers, asset owners, etc.) regardless of their size or location.
Deep dive
Overview
The Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) began in 2015 with Dutch banks and went global in 2019. Its simple idea: if banks, investors and insurers can measure the greenhouse gases linked to their loans, investments and underwriting, they can actually manage and reduce them. Unlike broad climate standards, PCAF is built by and for financial institutions and gives asset-class-specific methods rather than generic advice. It complements the GHG Protocol’s Scope 3 rules by going deeper on how to calculate “financed,” “facilitated,” and “insurance-associated” emissions. The initiative is governed by PCAF, with a professional Secretariat provided by Guidehouse to support adopters and maintain the Global GHG Accounting & Reporting Standard. In short, PCAF turns the concept of “portfolio emissions” into a practical, comparable set of numbers that boards, regulators and the public can understand. As of August 2025, PCAF reported 625 signatories worldwide committing to measure and disclose GHG emissions associated with financial activities using the Standard.
The PCAF Standard
PCAF’s Global Standard tells financial institutions to measure and disclose greenhouse-gas emissions linked to specific asset classes with consistent methods and data-quality scores (1–5).
Part A (Financed Emissions) covers seven areas: listed equity & corporate bonds, business loans & unlisted equity, project finance, commercial real estate, mortgages, motor-vehicle loans, and sovereign debt. It also includes guidance on emission removals and transparency rules for methods, assumptions, and coverage.
Part B (Facilitated Emissions) adds methods for capital-markets transactions (e.g., underwriting).
Part C (Insurance-Associated Emissions) adds methods for re/insurance underwriting. Institutions attribute a share of an investee’s emissions to themselves using PCAF’s attribution approach, then disclose totals, coverage, and data-quality grades to show where estimates vs reported data were used. The result is comparable, decision-ready numbers that can feed TCFD/ISSB reporting, target-setting, and risk management.
Who uses PCAF?
PCAF is now mainstream across banks, asset managers and insurers. Global names that have joined include Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and BNP Paribas, among many others. As of May 2025, PCAF reported over 600+ signatories worldwide. The Standard has expanded beyond lending and investing to cover capital-markets activities and insurance-associated emissions, answering long-standing gaps in portfolio accounting. PCAF also runs regional programs and an Accredited Partner network to strengthen implementation.
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