Navigating Net Zero with Alexia Kelly

In this episode of the Navigating Net Zero: In Focus mini-series on Developments in Climate Standards & Guidance, Alexia Kelly is joined by Amy Merrill, CEO of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM). Amy outlines how the independent governance body is creating an auditable, regulatory-style floor for credit quality through its Core Carbon Principles (CCPs). They unpack the mechanics of ICVCM's "double-tick" framework – evaluating both program governance and project-level quantification methodologies – to explain how 13 CCP-eligible programs representing 96% of the market are now providing comparable, high-integrity carbon credits to institutional buyers and corporate procurement teams.

Highlights from the Discussion:

• The Mechanics of the "Double-Tick" Assessment: Amy breaks down how ICVCM evaluates carbon registries on governance, transparency, and grievance handling (Tick 1) alongside methodology-specific assessments of additionality, conservative baselines, and reversal risk (Tick 2).
• Pre-Market Conditioning and Governance Reform: How publishing strict threshold requirements has driven carbon crediting programs to proactively upgrade their internal governance and risk management frameworks before undergoing formal review.
• Continuous Improvement and the Rule Architecture: An inside look at how stakeholder-led Continuous Improvement Work Programs (CIWPs) and the new Rule Architecture allow the ICVCM to clarify, interpret, and deepen quality standards over time without stranding market investments.

In this episode of the Navigating Net Zero: In Focus – Developments in Climate Standards & Guidance, host Alexia Kelly is joined by Chris Davis, Senior Fellow at the High Tide Foundation and lead for the Task Force for Corporate Action Transparency (TCAT). Chris unpacks the fundamental challenges facing corporate sustainability leaders as legacy carbon accounting standards fail to keep pace with modern market instruments. They discuss TCAT’s practitioner-led framework – including the Mitigation Action Accounting & Reporting Guidance (MAARG) and Targeted Action Reporting Guidance (TARG) – which provides the scaffolding companies need to report mitigation actions credibly, satisfy financial auditors and assurability requirements, and navigate complex global disclosure regulations amidst anti-ESG scrutiny.

Highlights from the Discussion:

• Bridging the Third-Party Assurability Gap: Chris explains how TCAT fills a critical void by creating auditable, rule-based methodologies that allow accounting firms to assure active mitigation investments with the same rigor applied to financial audits.
• The Architecture of the MAARG Logic Structure: A breakdown of TCAT’s multi-statement "sorting hat" framework, which applies strict logical tests to categorize corporate climate interventions inside or outside direct value chain footprints.
• Standardizing Regulatory Disclosures via TARG: How TARG translates granular mitigation data into audit-ready reporting templates, easing administrative friction for multinationals navigating complex global disclosure mandates.
• Differentiating Caused Mitigation from Footprint Volatility: Why net inventory changes fall short, and how TCAT isolates direct corporate investments so companies receive credit for intentional decarbonization rather than macro-economic shifts.

In this episode of the Navigating Net Zero: In Focus mini-series on Developments in Climate Standards & Guidance, host Alexia Kelly is joined by longtime climate policy expert Kim Carnahan. 

Kim shares the story behind launching the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA), which led to the Center for Green Market Activation (GMA) and informed the development of the new AIM Platform Standard and Guidance.

Together, Alexia and Kim explore:

Why Scope 3 accounting remains such a challenge

• How buyer alliances and book-and-claim systems work
• The launch of the new AIM Platform Standard
• Why accounting rules are shaping the speed of climate action
• The balance between environmental integrity and scaling investment

A thoughtful conversation about the future of corporate decarbonization and the market infrastructure needed to reach net zero.

What happens when the world’s most widely used carbon accounting rules evolve from a voluntary framework to being crucial regulatory infrastructure? In this episode, host Alexia Kelly sits down with Dominic Waughray, Executive Vice President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and Executive Co-Chair of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. Dominic maps out the massive institutional transformation currently underway at the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, as carbon data moves directly into the sightlines of CFOs, global regulators, and international standard-setters like the ISSB and ISO.

Highlights from the Discussion:

• Born in Chaos: Dominic reminds us of the protocol's unique DNA, tracing back to the mid-1990s when Dow Chemical, General Motors, and BP sat down with WRI and WBCSD to design the Scope 1, 2, and 3 framework at a moment when nothing else existed.
• The Structural Evolution of the GHG Protocol: A behind-the-scenes look at the professionalization of the protocol, including the creation of an Independent Standards Board, a new steering committee chaired by Geraldine Matchett, and the appointment of Tim Mohin as CEO.
• The Global Regulatory Leap: How the voluntary framework is being hardcoded into mandatory laws, from California's climate legislation to the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) alignment across 38 jurisdictions—including China’s 2027 alignment journey.
• The ISO & Global Collaboration Milestone: Celebrating the major alignment launched at COP30 in Brazil, uniting greenhouse gas accounting with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) across 174 countries.

How do we pivot global corporate behavior from making broad climate commitments to deploying capital for deep decarbonization? In this episode of Navigating Net Zero’s In Focus mini-series on Climate Standards and Guidance, host Alexia Kelly sits down with Amy Brachio, the newly appointed CEO of Carbon Measures. Leveraging nearly three decades of institutional experience at EY—including serving as its Global Vice Chair for Sustainability—Brachio argues that the roadblock to global net zero isn't a lack of corporate ambition, but a lack of functional market structures that incentivize scaled finance for low-carbon commodities.

This deep-dive conversation explores the origin and theory behind Carbon Measures, a new greenhouse gas accounting initiative backed by some of the world's heaviest emitters. Brachio outlines their strategy to move past enterprise-wide risk disclosure toward product-level carbon intensity standards for globally traded commodities like steel, cement, and fuels. By standardizing accounting at the "cradle-to-gate" asset level, Carbon Measures aims to help lawmakers design trade-compliant curves that naturally retool the upstream market supply signal.

How do we move carbon accounting from an administrative paperwork exercise to the literal balance sheets of global commerce? Host Alexia Kelly sits down with Greenhouse Gas Protocol CEO Tim Mohin to dissect the technical and institutional evolution required to make greenhouse gas data ready for Wall Street.

Mohin highlights the critical role of third-party assurance, detailing the massive effort to mature and align global emissions tracking systems. They also discuss the transition of emissions accounting from voluntary corporate public relations to hard financial regulation. He explains how the landmark partnership between the GHG Protocol and the International Standards Organization (ISO) will harmonize standards worldwide, paving the way for legally binding climate disclosures across seventy jurisdictions representing the vast majority of global GDP.

Featured Episode Quote:

"The ultimate goal here is to incorporate climate into our financial system so that we can flow capital to sustainable business practices. That's what investors want, that's what all the capital markets want, because climate change is real and it's here." — Tim Mohin

Key Discussion Points:

• The Push for Assurability: Why working with major audit firms at the front end of standard development ensures carbon data can withstand regulatory and legal scrutiny.
• Dismantling the Silos: Shifting environmental reporting away from a segregated corporate side-show and fully integrating it into mainstream financial reporting.
• Capital Allocation Dynamics: How reliable, comparable climate metrics empower institutional investors to fund sustainable portfolios on global markets.

In Focus: Developments in Climate Standards and Guidance

A special mini-series from Navigating Net Zero

Greenhouse gas accounting is changing rapidly. New standards are emerging, established frameworks are being revised, and organizations everywhere are trying to understand what these changes mean for climate action and investment.

In this special In Focus mini-series, host Alexia Kelly speaks with the leaders behind the world’s leading greenhouse gas accounting frameworks about the work they’re doing to shape the future of climate action. Together, they unpack the latest developments, explain how different standards fit together, and explore what's coming next.

Hear directly from leaders representing:
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP)

• Carbon Measures
• The AIM Platform
• The Task Force for Corporate Action Transparency (TCAT)
• The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM)
• And more

Whether you're a sustainability professional, climate strategist, ESG leader, or simply trying to understand where greenhouse gas accounting is heading, this mini-series will help you better understand the standards that underpin credible climate action.

In Focus: Developments in Climate Standards and Guidance is a special mini-series from Navigating Net Zero—the podcast exploring what's working, what's not, and what's next in the global transition to net zero.

Episode 1 launches on July 21st 2026

After a year of conversations with the people shaping climate action, Navigating Net Zero’s host Alexia Kelly steps back to reflect on what she's learned.

This isn't a collection of Season One highlights. It's a thoughtful exploration of the ideas that surfaced again and again across thirteen remarkable conversations: why climate action is ultimately about people before policy; why today's accounting rules are struggling to keep pace with tomorrow's ambition; why markets, trust and transparency remain essential to scaling solutions; why meaningful progress depends on engaging across political, corporate and ideological divides; and why taking care of ourselves may be just as important as our work.

Throughout its first season, Navigating Net Zero has looked beyond headlines and net zero pledges to examine where real decisions are made—in boardrooms, supply chains, finance teams and communities. In this closing episode, Alexia draws those conversations together into something more enduring: a field guide for navigating complexity with curiosity, humility and hope.

As the first season comes to a close, Alexia reflects on why, despite the scale of the challenge, she remains optimistic—not because the road ahead is easy, but because of the extraordinary people committed to walking it.

Host Alexia Kelly sits down with Richard Lawrence, founder of Overlook Investments Group and co-founder of multiple climate-focused organizations, to discuss carbon markets, climate philanthropy, and what has driven his work in both over the decades. Richard shares how a medical mission to Honduras transformed into a 20-year journey of installing more than 400,000 fuel-efficient cookstoves and how high-integrity carbon finance makes it possible.

Key Topics Discussed:

• The Origin of Proyecto Mirador: How an 11-year-old girl identified a public health crisis that led to a massive climate solution.
• Continuous Improvement: Why technical innovation—like a simple $1 ash wiper—is the key to project durability.
• The "Top of the Pyramid": Comparing high-performance investment portfolios to high-integrity carbon projects.
• The Future of the Market: The role of transparency, the ICVCM, and transitioning from "voluntary" to "verified" carbon markets.
• Tripling Down on Climate Philanthropy: Why the ultra-wealthy need to increase their payout ratios to address the climate crisis.

Let’s be honest—climate messaging isn’t landing the way it needs to.

In this episode, Alexia Kelly is joined by Kalee Kreider, one of the world’s leading climate communicators, to talk about why… and what we can do about it.

From working with Al Gore on An Inconvenient Truth to advising global organizations, Kalee has spent decades figuring out what actually connects with people—and what completely misses the mark.

They dive into:

• Why your climate message probably isn’t reaching the people you think it is
• The danger of “smart-sounding” language (and how to simplify without dumbing down)
• How methane went from overlooked to a “climate moment”
• Why people need hope + solutions—not just data
• The surprising real reason An Inconvenient Truth resonated
• How TikTok, LinkedIn, and AI are changing the game
• Why even experts need communication training

Plus, Kalee shares her top 3 tips for becoming a better climate communicator—no matter your role.

If you work in or are passionate about climate, this episode is a must-listen.