IN FOCUS: Chris Davis on TCAT, Assurable Guidance, and Closing the Corporate Climate Reporting Gaps
In this episode of the Navigating Net Zero: In Focus – Developments in Climate Standards & Guidance, host Alexia Kelly is joined by Chris Davis, Senior Fellow at the High Tide Foundation and lead for the Task Force for Corporate Action Transparency (TCAT). Chris unpacks the fundamental challenges facing corporate sustainability leaders as legacy carbon accounting standards fail to keep pace with modern market instruments. They discuss TCAT’s practitioner-led framework – including the Mitigation Action Accounting & Reporting Guidance (MAARG) and Targeted Action Reporting Guidance (TARG) – which provides the scaffolding companies need to report mitigation actions credibly, satisfy financial auditors and assurability requirements, and navigate complex global disclosure regulations amidst anti-ESG scrutiny.
Highlights from the Discussion:
- Bridging the Third-Party Assurability Gap: Chris explains how TCAT fills a critical void by creating auditable, rule-based methodologies that allow accounting firms to assure active mitigation investments with the same rigor applied to financial audits.
- The Architecture of the MAARG Logic Structure: A breakdown of TCAT’s multi-statement "sorting hat" framework, which applies strict logical tests to categorize corporate climate interventions inside or outside direct value chain footprints.
- Standardizing Regulatory Disclosures via TARG: How TARG translates granular mitigation data into audit-ready reporting templates, easing administrative friction for multinationals navigating complex global disclosure mandates.
- Differentiating Caused Mitigation from Footprint Volatility: Why net inventory changes fall short, and how TCAT isolates direct corporate investments so companies receive credit for intentional decarbonization rather than macro-economic shifts.
Creators and Guests
Host
Alexia Kelly
Alexia Kelly has worked for more than 18 years at the intersection of policy and finance to address the climate crisis. Alexia is the Managing Director of the Carbon Policy and Markets Initiative (CPMI) at High Tide Foundation. The CPMI accelerates ambitious climate action and capital mobilization through robust rules and guidance for voluntary corporate action and disclosures, and building the next generation of high-integrity carbon and environmental services markets. She currently serves on the Board of the Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Markets (IC VCM) and the Board of the Advanced and Indirect Mitigation Initiative, as well as on the Expert Advisory Group of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI). Prior to joining High Tide Foundation, she served as Director of Net Zero + Nature at Netflix, where she led the company’s inaugural greenhouse gas inventory, renewable energy strategy, Science Based Target and global carbon credit portfolio. Previously, she worked at the U.S. Department of State, where she served as lead negotiator to the UNFCCC on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. She has also held senior roles at the World Resources Institute, The David and Lucille Packard Foundation, The Climate Trust, and in private equity.
Guest
Chris Davis
Chris Davis is a Senior Fellow at the High Tide Foundation where he works on efforts to expand corporate climate finance to reverse climate change and protect nature. Chris has worked at the forefront of climate policy and carbon markets or nearly two decades. Prior to joining High Tide Foundation, he oversaw the sustainability practice for Amazon's international public policy practice where he built and led a team that covered renewable energy, sustainable transport, and ESG issues in Europe and Asia. He also supported Amazon's nature-based solutions team and helped lead the company’s contributions to developing global greenhouse gas accounting standards. Prior to joining Amazon, Chris was the Climate and Energy Policy advisor to Governor Jay Inslee of Washington state where he led the Governor’s clean energy legislative agenda and helped pass landmark legislation on clean electricity, carbon pricing and low carbon buildings. Chris was the Conservation Director for the Nature Conservancy of Washington prior to joining the Governor’s office.
Producer
Matt Jordan
Matt Jordan is a Director within the High Tide Foundation’s Carbon Policy and Markets Initiative (CPMI). Matt has been working in climate action for more than 15 years, and has a long track record of envisioning, developing and scaling innovative programs and financing tools that deliver lasting global impact. Matt built CLASP’s Clean Energy Access program from a single small project to an integrated portfolio of technical, research, and market stimulation programs with a coherent, issue-defining theory of change and a global team of more than 20. He co-founded Propel Clean Energy Partners, a consulting firm with clients such as the World Resources Institute, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and the Asian Development Bank. Following their acquisition of Propel’s work and team, Matt served as a Director in RMI’s Global South portfolio and led their global clean energy workforce development initiative. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Colgate University, a Master’s in Public Policy Analysis from the University of California, and a Professional Certificate in Financing and Deploying Clean Energy from Yale University.
