Carbon Tracker Initiative is a non-profit financial think tank founded in 2009 by former investment banker Mark Campanale. Headquartered in London, it conducts research at the intersection of climate science, energy markets, and capital allocation, with the stated mission of aligning capital markets with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
The organisation is best known for popularising the concept of the "carbon bubble" and "stranded assets" — the idea that a substantial portion of fossil fuel reserves on company balance sheets cannot be burned if the world is to limit warming to well below 2°C, and therefore risk becoming economically unviable. Its 2011 report Unburnable Carbon: Are the world's financial markets carrying a carbon bubble? introduced the carbon budget framework to mainstream investors and is widely credited with shaping the divestment movement and prompting central banks, including the Bank of England under Mark Carney, to examine climate-related financial risk.
Carbon Tracker's research typically targets institutional investors, regulators, and corporate boards rather than the general public. Its outputs include:
- Company-level analyses of oil, gas, coal, and utility firms assessing exposure to transition risk
- Sectoral reports on the economics of renewables versus fossil generation
- Tools such as the Global Coal Exit List collaborations and analyses tied to the Powering Past Coal Alliance
- Policy submissions to bodies including the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)
For Model UN delegates and IR researchers, Carbon Tracker is a useful primary source for quantitative claims about fossil fuel capex misalignment with Paris goals, the comparative cost curves of renewables versus coal, and the financial exposure of state-owned oil companies. Its work is frequently cited by the IEA, UNEP, and academic literature, though as an advocacy-aligned think tank its framing should be weighed against industry and government sources.
Example
In its 2022 report "Adapt to Survive," Carbon Tracker assessed major oil and gas producers including ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP against Paris Agreement-aligned capital expenditure pathways.
Frequently asked questions
It is funded primarily by philanthropic foundations focused on climate and sustainable finance, including grants from organisations such as the Grantham Foundation, the KR Foundation, and Bloomberg Philanthropies. It does not accept funding from the fossil fuel industry.
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