The Findings from the First Global Carbon Footprint Radar

Far from the original tightening of measures announced, the regulatory burden has eased significantly in Europe: the Omnibus I directive has cut the CSRD's scope by roughly 80%, reducing coverage from 50,000 companies to around 10,000, including 1,200 in France. In Asia, no unified regulatory framework yet exists. ESG discourse, for its part, has receded worldwide.

Yet, this lighter regulatory burden has produced no retreat in progress in the field. 7 in 10 responding companies have already measured their carbon footprint, and for close to two-thirds of them, the exercise has become annual. For the study's authors, carbon measurement has detached itself from its regulatory trigger, and become a management standard, driven more by internal conviction than obligation.

Brian Hill, CNRS Research Professor in Economics and Decision Sciences at HEC Paris, commented: “The Radar shows that carbon reporting is no longer driven by regulation alone: customers and competitors are now the most powerful forces for transparency, with a significant role remaining for voluntary leadership, especially in Europe. This can create a market dynamic of its own – companies disclose because stakeholders value the information and because, once others are transparent, staying silent becomes harder. This is precisely the kind of bottom-up dynamic highlighted and studied in our ongoing work at the HEC Paris Sustainability and Organizations Center on creating the conditions for smarter sustainability disclosure.”

67.7% of the companies surveyed have carried out at least one corporate carbon footprint assessment, with a striking geographical disparity: 83.3% in France and 89.5% in the UK, against only 37.2% in Asia.

Among companies reported to have never measured their footprint, the study debunks a financial explanation: price is cited by only 15.4% of them, trailing far behind lack of internal priority (51%) as reasoning. The barrier is, above all, one concerning decision-making.

In contrast, one obstacle affects every company without exception, whatever its size or country of operations: Scope 3 data, as cited by 77.5% of respondents. Neither experience (84.6% of mentions among the most seasoned companies) nor company size makes it any less difficult.

Carine de Boissezon, CIO at EDF Group, said: “Scope 3 is complex, as it spans many categories – purchased goods and services, business travel and use of sold products. It also requires accounting for double or triple counting: one company's Scope 3 is another's Scope 1 or 2. Yet Scope 3 carries strategic weight. This is where the greatest decarbonization potential is concentrated – and, with it, the opportunities that will drive a credible transition. This Radar confirms that the companies moving on this today are the ones that will bring their ecosystem into a credible climate transition plan.”

22.9% of companies already use AI in their carbon management, and 24.7% plan to adopt it soon. Here, the geographical gap is most striking: 43.2% adoption in Asia, against only 11.4% in France. Although behind on conventional carbon measurement, Asian companies are not following the established path taken by Europe: they are short-circuiting it by betting directly on automation.

AI is not, however, replacing human support. The study stresses that companies using it most also call on external consultants more than those who do without (42.9% against 27.2%).

Where concrete benefits from carbon management are observed, brand image is the first to gain (49.5% of respondent mentions), far ahead of actual cost reduction (25.4%). Although carbon initiatives prove to be fruitful, it is rarely in the areas we expect to see it first.

A sure sign of that disconnect: 56.4% of companies have never assessed the economic impact of their own carbon efforts. This blind spot leaves, first and foremost, those who decide the budget in the dark. According to the study, senior leaders are often the least informed about returns from carbon initiatives.

The UK is the second-largest national sample in the study. It records the highest rate of prior carbon footprint completion of all regions studied (89.5%), and ranks second on leadership engagement as a driver (53.1%), just behind France – a sign that measurement maturity here is closely tied to top-down conviction. The UK is also the second-highest adopter of AI in the study (40%), just behind Asia (43.2%) and far ahead of the rest of Europe (24.5%).

This lead narrows on verification: only 42.4% of UK companies have their results checked by a third party, below France's 63.7%, despite the UK's higher overall measurement maturity. Another distinctive trait: half of UK companies running a product carbon footprint process handle it entirely in-house – the highest share in the study, though on a small base of 12 responses.

Although 41.9% of companies have a formal transition plan to reduce their emissions, the results point to a more worrying gap: 43.1% of companies are not yet formally engaging their suppliers on carbon, even though supplier data is identified throughout the report as the number one bottleneck for measuring and for reducing emissions alike.

On this point, it is company size rather than geography that drives the gap: 66.7% of companies with more than 5,000 employees have a formal plan, against only 33.3% of those with fewer than 1,000.

Another notable disparity: not all companies measure in the same way. France relies overwhelmingly on the Bilan Carbone®/BEGES method (65.7%), while the rest of the world favors the GHG Protocol (74.5%) – a methodological divergence that complicates matters for any company seeking to consolidate an international value chain.

Francesca Cerchia, Global Head of Climate Solutions at SGS, commented: “The inaugural Radar confirms a conviction we share at SGS: carbon data only has value if it leads to concrete action. That is why we are continually broadening our support, from measurement and verification to carbon markets and decarbonization strategies, so that every company finds the right support at each stage of its journey.”

Only 41.6% of companies have begun assessing the carbon footprint of their products, two to three years behind their corporate footprint work. Here is where the clearest correlation in the study emerges: 45.8% of companies that have measured the footprint of all or most of their products use AI in their carbon work, against only 15% of those that have not measured any.

This study is based on 556 responses collected between June 16 and August 28, 2026, through an online questionnaire distributed across 62 countries. Six of those countries have a large enough sample for individual analysis: France, the UK, Japan, India, Taiwan and China. The sample was self-selecting and recruited through the professional networks of the study's partners: the results should therefore be read as representative of companies already engaged in the topic, rather than of the global business landscape as a whole.