PCAF (Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials)
PCAF is a global partnership of financial institutions that develops and maintains the standard methodology for measuring and disclosing greenhouse gas emissions associated with financial portfolios — known as financed emissions. The PCAF Standard covers six asset classes and provides attribution formulas for allocating emissions to lenders and investors.
PCAF was founded in 2015 by Dutch financial institutions and has grown to include over 400 member institutions managing more than $90 trillion in assets. The PCAF Global GHG Accounting and Reporting Standard (latest version: Part A, 2022) provides the definitive methodology for financed emissions.
The six asset classes covered are: listed equity and corporate bonds, business loans and unlisted equity, project finance, commercial real estate, mortgages, and motor vehicle loans. Each has a specific attribution approach. For corporate lending, the formula typically is: (outstanding amount / total enterprise value including cash) × borrower emissions.
PCAF assigns data quality scores from 1 (highest — verified, reported emissions) to 5 (lowest — estimated from sector averages and revenue). Institutions are expected to improve data quality over time by engaging borrowers and investees to report emissions directly.
CDP's Financial Services questionnaire and CSRD's ESRS E1 both reference PCAF methodology. SBTi's Financial Institutions Science-Based Target Setting guidance also builds on PCAF measurements. Using PCAF-aligned calculations ensures consistency across reporting obligations.
Frequently asked questions
What is PCAF? +
PCAF (Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials) is a global partnership of 400+ financial institutions that developed the standard methodology for measuring financed emissions across six asset classes. Its GHG Accounting Standard provides attribution formulas and data quality scoring.
What are PCAF data quality scores? +
PCAF scores range from 1 (highest quality — verified, reported emissions data) to 5 (lowest — estimated from sector averages and revenue proxies). Financial institutions are expected to improve their score distribution over time by engaging borrowers to report emissions.
Related terms
Financed Emissions
Financed emissions are the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to a financial institution's lending and investment portfolios — Scope 3 Category 15 under the GHG Protocol. They represent the real-economy emissions that banks, asset managers, and insurers fund through their capital allocation decisions.
Scope 3 Emissions
Scope 3 emissions are all indirect greenhouse gas emissions that occur in an organization's value chain — both upstream (suppliers, purchased goods, business travel, employee commuting) and downstream (product use, end-of-life treatment, investments). Scope 3 typically represents 70–90% of a company's total carbon footprint.
CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project)
CDP is a global non-profit organization that operates the world's largest environmental disclosure system. It collects self-reported climate, water, and forest data from thousands of companies, cities, and subnational governments on behalf of investors and purchasers, scoring disclosures from A (leadership) to D– (minimal).
Carbon Accounting
Carbon accounting is the systematic process of measuring, recording, and reporting the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by an organization, product, or activity. It follows standardized methodologies — most commonly the GHG Protocol — to quantify emissions across Scope 1 (direct), Scope 2 (purchased energy), and Scope 3 (value chain) categories, producing an auditable inventory that underpins disclosure, reduction planning, and regulatory compliance.