Carbon Accounting Market Report 2026: Key Stats, Figures & Insights

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Executive Summary: Carbon Accounting Market Report [2026]

• Industry Growth Overview: The carbon accounting industry reports a 13.93% yearly growth rate. Globally, the market is projected to grow to USD 78.75 billion by 2030, expanding at a 27.33% CAGR.
• Manpower & Employment Growth: The global carbon accounting workforce stands at 30 700 people, with employment growing by 53.9 in the last year.
• Patents: The industry records 1500 patents from 1300 applicants, with 17.98% yearly patent growth. China (1339) and the USA (41) are the leading patent jurisdictions.
• Global Footprint: The US, UK, India, Germany, and Australia are the top country hubs. On a city level, London, Singapore, New York City, Berlin, and San Francisco lead carbon accounting-related innovation and startup activity.
• Investment Landscape: The sector has seen 1100+ funding rounds, with an average investment value of USD 7.2 million per round. 1503+ investors have backed 310+ companies.
• Top Investors: Leading investors such as ING Global, 28DIGITAL (formerly EIT Digital), Societe Generale, Credit Agricole, Rabobank, and others collectively invested over USD 4.35 billion in carbon accounting-related businesses.
• Startup Ecosystem: Innovative startups such as Carbonly (AI-powered carbon tracking), DitchCarbon (ESG reporting platform), CarbonSuite (autopilot for carbon accounting), Sustainium (end-to-end emissions tracking), and Pepal (cloud-based sustainability management) showcase the sector’s global reach and entrepreneurial activity.

Methodology: How we created this Carbon Accounting Report

This report is based on proprietary data from our AI-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, which tracks 9 million global companies, 20K+ technologies and trends, as well as 150M patents, news articles, and market reports.

This data includes detailed firmographic insights into approximately 9 million startups, scaleups, and tech companies. Leveraging this exhaustive database, we provide actionable insights for startup scouting, trend discovery, and technology landscaping.

For this report, we focused on the evolution of carbon accounting over the past 5 years, utilizing our platform’s trend intelligence feature. Key data points analyzed include:

• Total Companies working in the sector
• News Coverage and Industry Growth
• Market Maturity and Patents
• Global Search Volume and Growth
• Funding Activity and Top Countries
• Subtrends within the carbon accounting industry

Our data is refreshed regularly, enabling trend comparisons for deeper insights into their relative impact and importance.

Additionally, we reviewed trusted external resources to supplement our findings with broader market data and predictions, ensuring a reliable and comprehensive overview of the carbon accounting market.

What Data is used to create this Carbon Accounting Market Report?

Based on data provided by the StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, we observe that the carbon accounting market stands out in the following categories relative to the 20K+ technologies and trends we track.

These categories provide a comprehensive overview of the market’s key metrics and inform the future direction of the market.

• News Coverage & Publications: The industry recorded 830+ publications in the last year, reflecting sustained research and industry attention.
• Funding Rounds: The sector witnessed more than 1100 funding rounds, highlighting active financial support for emissions measurement, reporting, and compliance tooling.
• Manpower: The sector employs 30 700+ workers, and added 53+ new employees in the last year.
• Patents: The carbon accounting market holds over 1500 patents from 1300+ applicants.
• Global Search Growth: Global search interest increased by 14.08% over the past five years, suggesting rising attention to carbon accounting topics.

Explore the Data-driven Carbon Accounting Market for 2026

The carbon accounting market is valued at approximately USD 23.53 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow to USD 78.75 billion by 2030, expanding at a 27.33% CAGR.

In parallel, our platform data indicates that the carbon accounting industry recorded a 13.93% yearly growth rate, signaling strong expansion driven by new company formation and accelerating adoption of emissions measurement and reporting practices.

Grand View Research reports that in terms of deployment, the cloud segment dominated the carbon accounting software market in 2024, capturing 73.3% of global revenue.

On a regional scale, as per Modor Intelligence, North America accounted for the largest share of revenue at 36.6% in 2024, while Asia-Pacific is emerging as the fastest-growing region, recording a 30.7% CAGR through 2030.

To add to this, our platform data reveals that leading country hubs for carbon accounting innovation include the US, UK, India, Germany, and Australia.

Key city hubs such as London, Singapore, New York City, Berlin, and San Francisco show concentrated activity across enterprise reporting, sustainability data workflows, and compliance-driven emissions accounting.

A Snapshot of the Global Carbon Accounting Market

According to our platform data, the carbon accounting industry is home to around 380 startups from a wider pool of 1100+ companies, showing a fast-growing, innovation-forward ecosystem that is scaling alongside sustainability reporting requirements.

The industry’s 13.93% yearly growth rate reflects rising adoption of emissions measurement and reporting systems across enterprises, financial institutions, and supply chains.

From a workforce perspective, the sector’s 30 700+ employee strength underlines its growing role as a specialized software and services market.

The addition of more than 53 employees last year suggests steady hiring in product development, data engineering, and implementation services supporting enterprise rollouts.

Innovation activity remains visible through IP signals. The market records over 1500 patents from 1300+ applicants, with 17.98% yearly patent growth.

China (1339) and the USA (41) are the leading issuers, indicating concentrated invention activity across methods and tooling that support emissions accounting and reporting workflows.

Explore the Funding Landscape of the Carbon Accounting Market

Our platform data shows that the average investment value per round is USD 7.2 million. This reflects sustained investor participation in software-led emissions measurement, reporting automation, and compliance-enabling solutions that support operational and disclosure needs.

More than 1500 investors are active in the sector, contributing to a diversified funding ecosystem that supports both early-stage product development and scaling of enterprise-ready carbon accounting platforms.

Over 1100 funding rounds have closed. This indicates a steady financing pipeline that enables companies to expand product capabilities, improve data coverage, and strengthen integrations across sustainability and finance systems.

Investors have funded more than 310 companies, reflecting broad confidence in scalable carbon accounting business models that combine software, data, and workflow automation.

Who is Investing in the Carbon Accounting Market?

The combined value invested by the top carbon accounting investors exceeds USD 4.35 billion, illustrating concentrated financial support from a mix of banking institutions and strategic financial players backing sustainability and reporting-related capabilities.

Key investors include:

• ING Global invested USD 992.7 million across 2 companies.
• 28DIGITAL (formerly EIT Digital) invested USD 662.5 million in at least one company.
• Societe Generale invested USD 440.7 million in at least one company.
• Credit Agricole invested USD 428.3 million in at least one company.
• Rabobank invested USD 406.9 million in at least one company.
• Natixis (by Groupe BPCE) invested USD 406.9 million in at least one company.
• Gunvor Group invested USD 372.5 million in at least one company.
• Industrial and Commercial Bank of China invested USD 228.8 million in at least one company.
• ABN AMRO Bank invested USD 211.9 million in a least one company.
• Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation invested USD 207.9 million across 3 companies.

Top Carbon Accounting Innovations & Trends

Within the broader carbon accounting landscape, three trends stand out based on firmographic data – company counts, employment, and growth rates.

Carbon Finance

• Annual trend growth rate: 8.62%
• 300+ companies identified
• Over 8400 employees worldwide
• 8+ new employees joined in the last year

Carbon finance links emissions measurement with financial decision-making by enabling carbon-linked instruments, internal pricing approaches, and risk-informed capital allocation. The combination of strong growth and a dedicated workforce indicates accelerating demand for tools that connect sustainability metrics with core financial workflows.

Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) Reporting

• Annual trend growth rate: 7.96%
• 340+ companies identified
• Over 53 800 employees worldwide
• 20+ new employees joined in the last year

CSRD reporting focuses on disclosure-ready sustainability reporting processes that standardize emissions and ESG data capture, validation, and governance. The significantly larger employee base points to operational intensity across data collection, auditability, and enterprise reporting workflows.

Carbon Handprint

• Annual trend growth rate: 7.15%
• 20+ companies identified
• Over 220 employees worldwide

Carbon handprint solutions quantify positive climate impact enabled by products, services, or operational changes, complementing traditional footprint reporting. While the company base is smaller, the growth rate suggests increasing interest in tools that translate emissions work into measurable avoided or reduced-impact outcomes.

5 Top Examples from 380+ Innovative Carbon Accounting Startups

The five innovative carbon accounting startups showcased below are picked based on data, including the trend they operate within and their relevance, founding year, funding status, and more. Book a demo to find promising startups, emerging trends, or industry data specific to your company’s needs and objectives.

Carbonly advances AI-Powered Carbon Tracking

Irish startup Carbonly develops an AI-powered carbon tracking platform that measures, analyzes, and reports Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions for businesses.

It connects to ERP systems, utilities, travel tools, procurement platforms, and spreadsheets to collect activity data, then applies current emission factors and standardized methodologies to calculate organizational and value-chain footprints.

The platform presents results through interactive dashboards, automated reports, and CSRD-aligned disclosures. Its AI models identify reduction opportunities across energy use, travel, waste, and supply chains.

Additionally, Carbonly enables one-click emissions sharing with enterprise partners to support supply-chain transparency and compliance workflows.

Pepal enables Cloud-based Sustainability Management

Australian startup Pepal offers a cloud-based sustainability management platform that enables organizations and their value chains to measure, share, and manage emissions data collaboratively.

It captures primary data through third-party integrations and inputs, then processes this information continuously to calculate Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions in alignment with the GHG Protocol.

The platform supports automated reporting for internal use and external disclosures, while connecting suppliers of different sizes to a shared environment for tracking value-chain emissions over time.

It also models reduction scenarios, allocates achieved improvements to requesting entities, and supports offset management for residual emissions.

Moreover, Pepal includes benchmarking based on an industry emissions database to compare performance across peers.

DitchCarbon provides an ESG Reporting Platform

UK-based startup DitchCarbon offers an ESG reporting platform that centralizes environmental, social, and governance metrics to support standardized sustainability disclosures.

It ingests data from core business systems through integrations with ERP, payroll, utilities, asset management, and carbon accounting tools. It then normalizes this data into a framework aligned with global reporting standards.

The platform automates calculation of key performance indicators, tracks emissions and resource use, and generates reports for frameworks such as GRI, SASB, TCFD, and CSRD.

DitchCarbpn also offers dashboards, visualizations, and audit trails that enhance stakeholder transparency and avoid governance oversight.

CarbonSuite designs an Auto-Pilot for Carbon Accounting

Canadian startup CarbonSuite develops an auto-pilot carbon accounting platform embedded directly within the NetSuite ERP to record, report, and manage greenhouse gas emissions.

It captures Scope 1, 2, and 3 activity data from financial transactions such as vendor bills and expense reports and creates a linked carbon ledger that mirrors financial ledger entries for traceability.

The platform applies vetted emission factors from public and proprietary databases through mapping of vendors, items, and accounts. An AI data scanner extracts activity details from invoices to reduce manual data entry.

It also tracks energy, water, and waste metrics in a sustainability ledger that remains synchronized with financial records.

CarbonSuite generates audit-grade disclosures aligned with frameworks, including GHG Protocol, CSRD, CDP, and ISSB. It also supports period close workflows with built-in validation and change logs.

Sustainium simplifies End-to-End Emissions Tracking

US-based startup Sustainium designs an end-to-end emissions tracking platform that records, calculates, and reports Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas emissions across multi-site and multi-country operations.

It aggregates data from integrated sources and inputs, applies methodologies aligned with the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064, and uses a curated emissions factor database with transparent audit trails to ensure calculation consistency.

The platform supports activity-based, spend-based, and hybrid approaches, enables automated data synchronization, and applies AI to validate emission factors and flag anomalous patterns in datasets.

It presents results through configurable dashboards, real-time analytics, and segment-level trend analysis, while generating stakeholder- and regulation-specific reports with controlled audit-party access.

Key Action Points for Carbon Accounting Industry Stakeholders

• For investors: Focus on carbon finance and reporting infrastructure, where company growth and workforce signals indicate sustained market pull and scaling potential.
• For enterprises: Strengthen data foundations and reporting workflows by partnering with platforms that improve auditability, automation, and multi-entity consolidation across emissions data.
• For policymakers and ecosystem builders: Use the concentration of activity in the US, UK, India, Germany, and Australia, as well as hubs like London and Singapore, to guide partnerships, pilots, and standards-alignment initiatives.

Gain Comprehensive Insights into Carbon Accounting Trends, Startups, and Technologies

The carbon accounting industry continues to gain strategic importance as organizations strengthen emissions measurement, reporting, and governance capabilities.

Ongoing innovation across software platforms, reporting frameworks, and finance-linked sustainability tools reflects rising enterprise demand for reliable and auditable carbon data.

With active startup development, diversified investor participation, and strong alignment with regulatory and disclosure requirements, the ecosystem is evolving beyond compliance toward decision-grade sustainability intelligence.

Get in touch to explore 380+ startups and scaleups, as well as all market trends impacting carbon accounting companies.