A systematic review of corporate carbon accounting and disclosure practices: Charting the path to carbon neutrality

Josephine Ganu,Hannah Fosuaa Amo

doi:10.30585/jrems.v2i4.547

Abstract

The study examined the theoretical motivation for carbon disclosure and its adequacy for deliberate responsible action. Generally, there is an increase in corporate carbon disclosures in the business sector. Organizations are mostly disclosing their carbon emissions through annual reports, integrated reports, or stand-alone sustainability reports for different reasons and motives. However, the study infers that the quality and adequacy of the current disclosures are debatable due to a lack of consistency and technical details. The causal reason may be due to the inherently voluntary nature of the corporate carbon disclosure. The study finds that there is less research on carbon accounting and disclosures in developing countries especially, in Africa. There is a need for organizations to streamline the application and approaches to carbon accounting. The study suggests the necessity for government regulators and standard setters in accounting to provide a framework that will guide carbon disclosure practices.

Highlights

Carbon accounting is known as environmental disclosure refers to the measuring and reporting of emissions by companies
How do companies report their carbon emissions? What are the drivers of carbon emissions disclosures? What is the role of accounting professionals on firms' carbon emissions activities and carbon mitigation? What regulations are in place? What is the role of carbon emissions disclosures in investor decisions? To search the literature from the databases, these terms were utilized: "carbon * accounting", which comprised, for example, “carbon dioxide accounting”; “CO2 * accounting”; “greenhouse gas * accounting” as well as
De Aguiara and Bebbington (2014) argue that there is a wide variety of approaches that can be found in the accounting literature that looks at the subject of climate change and carbon accounting

Summary

Introduction

Carbon accounting is known as environmental disclosure refers to the measuring and reporting of emissions by companies. One prominent environmental issue that has become so contentious is the subject of climate change, known as global warming. According to WHO estimates, climate change will cause an additional 250,000 deaths per year between 2030 and 2050 if carbon emission is not reduced (Neira, 2014). Human activities are continuing to drive many species of plants and animals into extinction which has been termed the ‘sixth mass extinction’ in the history of the planet (Mulligan, 2018). Mulligan further reports that at least 200 species become extinct every year; while the global

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Conclusion