Meet Swift for carbon data, and why this matters for trade and treasury

By: James Dorman

Swift provides the architecture that allows trillions of dollars to move across borders with trust and efficiency. 2026 marks a similar infrastructure revolution hitting the realm of sustainability. No longer a tick-box exercise, carbon data reporting is becoming a critical business imperative as carbon markets expand and regulations tighten.

Joy Macknight, Transaction Banking and Payments Editor at Trade Treasury Payments, sat down with Naama Avni-Kadosh, Director of the Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT), World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), in the TTP studios to discuss how PACT is emerging as the Swift for carbon data, and how providing the infrastructure for the flow of carbon information is a game-changer for trade, treasury, and transaction banking.

The end of the proxy era

For years, corporate sustainability reporting has been built on the foundation of what Avni-Kadosh describes as a “brutal” reality: the vast majority of data is simply not accurate. Companies have relied heavily on industry averages and estimates when calculating their environmental impact.

“We’re actually evaluating companies based on a proxy today, which is something that in the financial world we would never accept,” explains Avni-Kadosh. “You would never evaluate a company based on their industry average assets; you would look into their own specific business”.

This is PACT’s mission – to bridge this information gap by leaving proxies behind and empowering the market with accurate primary data. To achieve this, the product carbon footprint (PCF) is brought into focus; since carbon is embodied in the material purchased and products built, it is at the product level where the true emissions data resides.

Building the ‘Swift for carbon’

Effectively calculating and leveraging PCF at a global scale requires trustable infrastructure as much as the efforts of individual companies. Avni-Kadosh describes PACT as this infrastructure, representing not just an initiative towards better carbon reporting, but the actual “pipes” to make it a practical reality.

Swift enabled the global scaling of financial transactions by creating a standardised, reliable system for moving money. PACT provides comparable technical infrastructure for the flow of carbon data between different systems and across borders. This “Internet” of PCF, as Avni-Kadosh puts it, ensures that a supplier in China, say, can transfer trusted data to a buyer in Europe, regardless of what specific software each party uses. “If you use, I don’t know, Gmail, I use Outlook, we can still send emails to one another; that’s because there’s a technical infrastructure behind that”.

As of 2026, the PACT network has become the largest of its kind, with over 5000 organisations using 52 software providers connected by this infrastructure. More than 4 million PCFs have already been calculated through this data pipeline; a good start, but Avni-Kadosh remains pragmatic. “We need billions. There are billions of products out there,” she highlights.

The new cost variable for treasury and trade

Avni-Kadosh emphasises that carbon data reporting is not a simple exercise in environmental stewardship, but a matter of risk management. In her eyes, when the industry considers PCFs, this should translate to cost variable. With the implementation of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and other similar initiatives emerging around the world, carbon now carries a literal price tag at the border.

“Carbon becomes the third factor of trade,” explains Avni-Kadosh; “after price and quality comes carbon”. If businesses lack visibility into the actual carbon impact of their products, they’re effectively operating in the dark, unaware of crucial cost factors and regulatory risks that can materially impact their bottom line. This same risk extends to banks and trade finance providers, whose portfolios are intrinsically linked to the carbon exposure of their clients.

Interoperability vs. harmonisation

Fragmentation of regulations is consistently one of the major challenges facing global trade finance – between CBAM, Digital Product Passports (DPPs), and conflicting national standards, suppliers can find themselves overwhelmed by different reporting requirements.

Avni-Kadosh acknowledges these challenges and how they exist within carbon reporting, but also recognises that global harmonisation with regard to reporting is unlikely any time soon; this is why PACT instead advocates interoperability. Different regions have different use cases, but it is the same underlying data. Avni-Kadosh looks to “lean into fragmentation through interoperability” and have PACT to provide a “translation layer” that allows companies to calculate their carbon data once, then repackage this data to fit different use cases.

She describes, as she puts it, a “clickety-click” world where businesses have an automated system where primary carbon data can be seamlessly formatted for CBAM filing, green loan applications, internal procurement processes, or whatever else it may be needed for, providing a trustable pipeline that works at scale.

Transforming carbon data into a commercial asset

So what should those in the financial and trade sectors be doing right now with their carbon data? Avni-Kadosh says organisations should carry out a “pulse check” and at first acknowledge the existence of this risk. For corporates, she suggests asking the person responsible for Scope 3 emission calculations not simply what the number is, but how it is calculated. If the figure relies on averages and not primary data, then an organisation knows it is exposed to an unknown risk.

For those in trade finance, they need to examine their portfolios and learn exactly how much of their client base is or is not providing verified, product-level data – “their risk is your risk,” she warns.

Embracing PACT and the motivations behind it offers not simply an easier way to ensure regulatory compliance, but a business advantage. “Sustainability is part of our business,” Avni-Kadosh concluded, noting that leading businesses have already embraced this reality at every level of their operations. “It’s just another KPI that is relevant for the business that you cannot ignore”.

Prefer to listen? The full conversation is also available as a podcast below.