The barrier is not ambition. It is the absence of peer-reviewed measurement standards, science-based pathway tools, and quantified physical risk assessments at the granularity corporate decision-making requires. We build that infrastructure.
The gap between climate commitments and verified action is, in large part, a scientific infrastructure problem. The tools to act credibly at the required scale and precision do not yet exist for most industries.
Corporate Scope 3 emissions represent both the largest share of most companies' total footprint and the most scientifically complex to measure. Our research finds that within identical sectors and categories, reported emission intensities vary by factors that cannot be explained by operational differences alone¹ — with extreme ranges observed across infrastructure and resource transformation categories. This points to structural methodological heterogeneity in current accounting practice.
This is not a question of intent. It reflects the absence of harmonised, peer-reviewed emission factors and standardised boundary definitions. Without that foundation, companies cannot set defensible targets, investors cannot distinguish genuine decarbonisation from accounting methodology shifts, and regulators cannot implement the standards they are mandating under CSRD, TCFD, and evolving global frameworks.
The AI infrastructure sector, which represents a rapidly growing share of global energy demand and Scope 3 emissions² and where hardware supply chain Scope 3 emissions dominate, serves as the proof-of-concept for The Gigaton Project's approach. The methodology then scales to consumer goods, OEMs, energy utilities, and finance, each sector facing structurally similar challenges.
The regulatory timeline is compressing. CSRD double materiality requirements, SBTi V2.0 finalisation, and GHG Protocol Scope 3 revisions are converging in 2025–2026. Companies that establish scientific foundations now are better positioned for both compliance and strategic advantage.
Each gap represents an area where the scientific infrastructure required for credible corporate climate action does not yet exist at the required scale. Addressing them is the founding mandate of The Gigaton Project.
Scope 3 emission factors vary by orders of magnitude across databases for equivalent products, making peer benchmarking and longitudinal progress tracking difficult to interpret without a harmonised reference standard.
No peer-reviewed, industry-specific decarbonisation pathway currently integrates technology costs, supply chain realities, and IPCC scenarios at the granularity required for capital allocation and SBTi-aligned target-setting.
IPCC-quality climate impact science exists at sectoral and regional scales via ISIMIP. Translating those projections into facility-level financial exposure for corporate assets and multi-tier supply chains requires an industry-specific methodological layer not yet available.
The Net Zero Stocktake 2025 finds that only 7% of companies meet all minimum procedural and substantive integrity requirements. Scientific guardrails, including methodological consistency verification and transparent baselines, are needed to close this gap systematically.
CLARITY, COMPASS, and CATALYST are designed as interlocking systems. Together they cover the full corporate climate challenge: measure, plan, and protect.
CLARITY produces the harmonised emission factor foundation that COMPASS requires to set credible pathways and that CATALYST requires to compare decarbonisation investment costs against physical risk exposure.
COMPASS builds on CLARITY's verified baselines to generate industry-specific technology deployment roadmaps grounded in IPCC scenarios and system dynamics modelling. Its outputs also define the transition risk inputs that CATALYST integrates into cost-benefit analysis.
CATALYST closes the loop: translating ISIMIP physical risk projections into the same financial language as COMPASS decarbonisation investments, enabling evidence-based portfolio optimisation across mitigation and adaptation.
All three operate on an open-foundation model: peer-reviewed methodologies published in leading journals, freely accessible. Implementation platforms for companies requiring tailored tools generate the revenue that sustains ongoing research.
Harmonised Scope 3 emission factors via AI reconciliation across LCA databases. The scientific foundation layer.
Industry-specific net-zero roadmaps with cost curves and technology deployment schedules. The strategy layer.
ISIMIP-grounded physical risk translated to corporate asset and supply chain financial exposure. The risk layer.
AI-driven reconciliation of conflicting LCA emission factor databases, producing scientifically defensible, auditable Scope 3 inventories with quantified uncertainty ranges. Starting with AI infrastructure, scaling to all Scope 3-intensive sectors.
Database selection alone produces a 2.09× spread in reported Scope 3.1 emissions for identical operations. CLARITY closes this gap with peer-reviewed, reproducible, industry-specific emission factors.
The first peer-reviewed, industry-specific decarbonisation pathway framework. System dynamics modelling integrating IPCC scenarios, technology cost curves, and supply chain economics to produce feasible, CAPEX-transparent net-zero roadmaps.
Integrated Assessment Models define pathways at broad sectoral level. COMPASS translates IPCC AR6 and IEA NZE 2050 into verifiable, industry-specific corporate targets with technology deployment schedules and cost breakdowns.
Translating ISIMIP3b physical risk projections into corporate financial language. Facility-level damage functions, multi-tier supply chain network models, and integrated cost-benefit analysis weighing physical risk against decarbonisation investment.
CATALYST closes the loop between mitigation and adaptation: the same financial units used to express COMPASS decarbonisation costs are used to express avoided physical damages, enabling evidence-based portfolio optimisation.
The Gigaton Project produces open-access scientific outputs and implementation platforms. Here is what engaging with our work means in practice for corporate climate teams, CFOs, and sustainability boards.
A peer-reviewed, harmonised emission factor foundation for Scope 3 accounting, with documented methodology auditable by regulators, investors, and standards bodies. CLARITY provides the measurement basis that makes Scope 3 targets interpretable and comparable across peers.
COMPASS produces the first industry-specific, peer-reviewed decarbonisation roadmap with transparent technology deployment schedules, CAPEX requirements, and marginal abatement cost curves. Boards gain a clear view of what net-zero costs, what it delivers, and when each intervention becomes economically viable.
CATALYST translates ISIMIP climate impact projections from regional hazard assessments into facility-level financial exposure and supply chain risk estimates. Scenario-specific, TCFD-compliant quantification of climate-related financial risk, grounded in IPCC science.
CSRD double materiality, TCFD scenario analysis, and SBTi V2.0 target-setting require methodologies currently absent at scale. The Gigaton Project builds them as open-access scientific outputs, designed from the outset for compatibility with third-party assurance requirements.
CLARITY's longitudinal tracking framework and methodological consistency verification enable companies to document that reported changes reflect operational improvement rather than shifts in accounting methodology, providing a rigorous evidence base for progress claims.
CATALYST's integrated cost-benefit framework quantifies physical risk exposure alongside the cost of mitigation investment from COMPASS, enabling evidence-based portfolio optimisation across adaptation and decarbonisation. Companies gain the analytical foundation to move from binary trade-offs to informed allocation decisions.
Four major regulatory and standards processes are converging. Each assumes scientific infrastructure that does not yet exist at scale for most industries. The Gigaton Project is building it.
The EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive now requires double materiality assessment covering both how climate affects the business (financial materiality, addressed by CATALYST) and how the business affects the climate (impact materiality, addressed by CLARITY and COMPASS). This integrated requirement is precisely the framework The Gigaton Project produces.
The SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0, currently in final consultation, introduces stricter Scope 3 requirements including sector-specific "relevant category" identification and dynamic residual emission thresholds. CLARITY and COMPASS are being built to provide the methodological foundation these requirements assume.
The GHG Protocol Scope 3 revision under Working Group 3 is directly motivated by the methodological heterogeneity documented in peer-reviewed literature. CLARITY's harmonisation approach is designed to be compatible with revised GHG Protocol guidance as it emerges.
Double materiality assessment: outside-in physical risk (CATALYST) plus inside-out emission impact (CLARITY + COMPASS). Mandatory for 50,000+ companies across the EU from 2025-2028 rollout.
Stricter Scope 3 coverage requirements, sector-specific relevant category definitions, and dynamic residual thresholds. CLARITY's emission factor harmonisation and COMPASS pathway alignment are designed to meet V2.0 requirements.
Working Group 3 revisions to address the measurement inconsistency documented in peer-reviewed research. CLARITY's harmonisation methodology is designed to be compatible with revised GHG Protocol guidance.
Scenario analysis, physical risk assessment, and governance disclosure now embedded in ISSB S2, adopted by 40+ jurisdictions. CATALYST provides the ISIMIP-grounded scenario analysis and financial quantification required.
The Gigaton Project begins with corporate infrastructure because it is the most urgent gap and the proof-of-concept for everything that follows. Each phase builds on the scientific foundations laid before it.
Building CLARITY, COMPASS, and CATALYST as peer-reviewed, open-access tools. AI Infrastructure as the proof-of-concept sector, scalable to consumer goods, OEMs, textiles, and retail. Seeking founding research partners and funders.
Seeking Funding · You Are HereMerging corporate net-zero blueprints with city-specific decarbonisation strategies. Urban emissions accounting, city-corporate synergy quantification, and joint climate finance mechanisms. See our Cities page for more.
Planned · Funding to be SecuredExtending beyond carbon to water, biodiversity, land use, and ocean health. A comprehensive planetary stewardship framework for corporations and non-state actors at global scale, targeting 2+ GtCO₂e equivalent impact annually.
Planned · Vision StageThe Gigaton Project operates as an independent scientific institute. We collaborate with scientific partners, engage corporate pilots, and work alongside standards bodies. Institutions appear as potential research partners, not as affiliates endorsing our work.
We build on decades of publicly funded climate science. Potential scientific collaborators include institutions active in integrated assessment modelling, LCA science, industrial ecology, and climate risk quantification.
We are seeking 2-3 founding corporate partners for the AI infrastructure proof-of-concept. Pilot partners contribute operational data, validate methodologies against real supply chains, and co-develop implementation platforms. They gain first access to tools and co-authorship recognition.
Methodologies need to align with evolving standards to be implementable. We maintain active dialogue with the standards bodies whose frameworks define what "good" corporate climate disclosure means in practice.
Phase 1 is seeking research funding from climate-focused philanthropists, foundations, and impact investors who understand that scientific infrastructure is the leverage point that unlocks everything else. This is the layer below the layer that everyone else funds.
The Gigaton Project is actively seeking founding corporate partners, research collaborators, and funders for Phase 1. If you are working on the same problem from a different angle, we want to hear from you.
← Back to The Gigaton Project