Today: Leading climate figures say a new method to account for emissions could risk decarbonization efforts; resale app Vinted is gearing up to enter the U.S.; an energy startup uses AI to find overlooked geothermal fields.

Welcome back: Carbon Measures, a climate initiative backed by 23 companies including energy giant Exxon Mobil and Spanish bank Santander, aims to challenge the way companies account for carbon emissions, putting the emphasis on products rather than supply chains. Supporters say it will drive demand for low-carbon goods.

However, leading corporate climate figures say that existing carbon-accounting methods track companies’ emissions sufficiently and adding new ways simply muddies the waters, Yusuf Khan reports for WSJ Pro Sustainable Business.

“We are emitting greenhouse gases and we need to account for it,” said John Browne, a former chief executive of oil major BP and the current chairman of BeyondNetZero, a climate growth equity venture. “We need to account for it in one way rather than in myriad different ways that cause confusion—a single language, a single way.” 

The former oil executive who now is a member of the U.K.’s House of Lords is one of eight signatories to a letter published Friday calling for efforts to avoid fragmentation in carbon accounting. Other signatories include Paul Polman, former Unilever CEO; Maria Mendiluce, CEO of the We Mean Business Coalition; and Andrew Steer, former CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund and professor at the London School of Economics.

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Geothermal company Zanskar has privately raised $115 million in its latest funding round to find and develop overlooked geothermal fields such as one in Nevada, concealed beneath an arid expanse of high desert.

The land doesn’t vent steam, emit fumaroles, or boast hot springs. In other words, it has none of the telltale signs that companies have typically relied on as they have scoured the West for heat to turn into electrons, the WSJ’s Benoît Morenne reports.

Zanskar, based in Salt Lake City, said it can bypass finding these signatures altogether and unlock hidden troves of concentrated energy, as well as squeeze out more from known fields, all thanks to artificial intelligence. For years, the company has been feeding field data collected by its geologists to a custom-built model that now reliably spits out prospects, including Big Blind, the Nevada field.

Europe’s largest online secondhand retailer has been trying to pierce the U.S. for years. Now its CEO thinks it finally can, Aimee Look reports for WSJ Pro Sustainable Business.

Vinted has grown into a household name in Europe, and Chief Executive Thomas Plantenga said his startup over the next few months will pour tens of millions of dollars into expanding in the U.S., with plans to boost its sales channels and brand presence while optimizing its platform for a bigger American clientele.

“We’re now committing to way larger budgets that are actually quite serious,” the 42-year-old CEO said in an interview. “It’s not a preliminary test. It’s a full-fledged test.”

The platform, which connects buyers and sellers of secondhand clothes and other goods, will work with shipping companies to ensure that its delivery channels are cheap and efficient in the U.S., said Plantenga, who is known for his laid-back fashion style, including yarn coats and other clothes he has bought off the app.

• How an App Selling Secondhand Clothes Went From Near Collapse to Worth $5 Billion (WSJ)

• U.K. government warns of security threat from biodiversity loss, climate change (Dow Jones Risk Journal)
   
• Energy Dept. says it is canceling $30 billion in clean energy loans (NYT)
   
• Solar industry launches new push on storage (Axios)
   
• India is electrifying faster than China using cheap green tech (Bloomberg)
   
• Japan restarts world's largest nuclear plant as Fukushima memories loom large (BBC)

• EU green rules fail to boost funds’ ESG credentials, research finds (FT)

• Senators urge Ford to disclose suspected lobbying over Trump’s climate rollbacks (Guardian)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send comments to bureau chief Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at wsjperry, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.