Claims audit — 2026-09-08

The page's own footnotes, margin notes and derivation notes were fact-checked against the live web by an independent system, Continuity Check (Gemini on Vertex AI extracts claims, Parallel Search retrieves evidence, Gemini grades on that evidence only). Input: docs/claims_audit_2026-09-08_input.txt (19 sentences). Output: docs/claims_audit_2026-09-08.json. Re-run: python3 tools/claims_audit.py.

Result: 25 claims graded (the checker caps at 25) — CONFIRMED 23, CONTRADICTED 1, UNVERIFIABLE 1.

What it caught

CONTRADICTED — "CBECI greenhouse-gas index". Correct catch. CBECI is the Cambridge *Bitcoin Electricity Consumption* Index; the greenhouse-gas index is the Cambridge Blockchain Network *Sustainability* Index (CBNSI), which builds on CBECI's electricity estimates. The link already pointed at the CBNSI GHG page; the label was imprecise. Fixed in footnote 6 the same day.
UNVERIFIABLE — PCAF is "the global standard". A superlative the evidence calls "significant and widely used" rather than "the" standard. Left as is; it is PCAF's own description and the footnote links it.

Table

Verdict	Claim	Top source
CONFIRMED	Vanguard Target Retirement Fund allocations	https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/target-retirement-funds
CONFIRMED	Vanguard Target Retirement Funds	https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/target-retirement-funds
CONFIRMED	Glide path data as of 2025	https://institutional.fidelity.com/app/literature/flyer/9921209/2025-glide-path-update-overview.html
CONFIRMED	Vanguard	https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds
CONFIRMED	How America Saves 2025	https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/dam/corp/research/pdf/how_america_saves_report_2025.pdf
CONFIRMED	Target-date fund adoption among 401(k) participants	https://401kspecialistmag.com/target-date-funds-deep-dive
CONFIRMED	A 2024 edition link used previously no longer resolves	https://help.archive.org/help/using-the-wayback-machine/
CONFIRMED	MSCI	https://www.msci.com/indexes
CONFIRMED	Carbon Footprinting Demystified (PDF)	https://www.msci.com/documents/10199/a57d8424-34a9-3ea4-5a74-030349845bb3
CONFIRMED	April 2024	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events/April_2024
CONFIRMED	WACI is tCO2e/$M revenue	https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/documents/additional-material/spdji-esg-carbon-metrics.pdf
CONFIRMED	Carbon footprint is tCO2e/$M invested	https://www.msci.com/documents/10199/a57d8424-34a9-3ea4-5a74-030349845bb3
CONFIRMED	PCAF	https://www.persefoni.com/blog/pcaf
CONFIRMED	Global GHG Accounting & Reporting Standard for the Financial Industry	https://ghgprotocol.org/global-ghg-accounting-and-reporting-standard-financial-industry
UNVERIFIABLE	The Global GHG Accounting & Reporting Standard for the Financial Industry is the global standard for measuring financed emissions	https://carbonaccountingfinancials.com/standard
CONFIRMED	S&P Trucost datasets	https://portal.s1.spglobal.com/survey/documents/SPG_S1_Trucost_Environmental_Data_Methodology.pdf
CONFIRMED	CDP datasets	https://www.cdp.net/en/data
CONFIRMED	MSCI index carbon data	http://msci.com/data-and-analytics/carbon-markets
CONFIRMED	Scope 1+2 emissions	https://www.epa.gov/climateleadership/scope-1-and-scope-2-inventory-guidance
CONFIRMED	Figures represent approximate 2024–2025 levels	https://rivery.io/blog/big-data-statistics-how-much-data-is-there-in-the-world/
CONFIRMED	Bitcoin network emissions	https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption
CONFIRMED	Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance	https://platform.tracxn.com/a/d/company/619d618bed717041e2241a4d/the%20cambridge%20centre%20for%20alternative%20finance?utm_source=parallel&utm_medium=ai#a:about
CONTRADICTED	CBECI greenhouse-gas index	https://greencalculus.com/standards/cambridge-cbeci-bitcoin-electricity
CONFIRMED	Cambridge Digital Mining Industry Report (April 2025)	https://platform.tracxn.com/a/d/company/60b33c7c8eecb11caa1e1561/digital%20mining?utm_source=parallel&utm_medium=ai#a:about
CONFIRMED	Bitcoin network emissions are 39.8 MtCO2e/yr central	https://coinlaw.io/bitcoin-energy-consumption-statistics

Limits of this audit

The extractor splits prose into many small claims ("MSCI", "Vanguard"), which pads the CONFIRMED count; the meaningful lines are the dated figures and definitions.
The 25-claim cap cut the tail of the input (the 16 t per-person and 4.6 t per-car figures were not graded this run); split the input to audit those.
Continuity Check grades against what the web says today; it does not validate the calculator's arithmetic (that is covered by tests/).

Engine: Continuity Check — live demo · source (MIT)