RATIONALE and SCOPE: Carbon accounting is an emerging practice and is expected to play an important role for corporate transition management toward a net zero business model. Thus, the editorial team of the Special Issue invites high quality submissions of research work relating to all aspects of carbon accounting and reporting, climate finance and carbon management, as well as their interactions with financial markets, climate risk management and analysis, carbon trading and regulations, etc. The special issue is intended to enhance a more nuanced understanding of carbon accounting and promote the profile and reputation of the prestigious journal, British Accounting Review in the burgeoning area of carbon accounting and assurance.
The international climate change accord, the 2015 Paris Agreement was a tipping point in the global approach to limit temperature rises to well below 2°C and ideally 1.5°C and many governments and commercial organisations have committed to transforming toward decarbonised economy (Nordhaus 2019, Stern 2006, IPCC 2019). The recent development of new climate regulations includes COP26 Glasgow Climate Pact (UNFCCC, 2021), the UK proposed mandate disclosure of net zero transition plans for listed companies and financial institutions (Gov. UK 2021); ISSB proposed sustainability and climate disclosure standards (IFSB Foundation 2021). The global emergence of green transition entails studies that can provide fresh insights of optimizing energy resource utilisation and carbon emissions mitigation (Amel-Zadeh & Serafeim 2018, He et al 2021a). Consensus has been reached that improving corporate responsible responses through carbon accounting, measurement and disclosure is essential to set out how climate-related issues impact their carbon neutrality planning. This amplifies the long-standing call from accounting academics and professionals to develop robust carbon accounting paradigm. While there has been some progress (e.g. Tang and Luo 2014, Clarkson et al 2015), the research is relatively underdeveloped and thus significant gaps exist in this area (He et al 2021b, Fan et al 2021).
TOPICS: We identify the following potential topics for this Special Issue that include, but are not limited to:
– Theoretical underpinnings for the role of carbon accounting for carbon neutrality programs
– Carbon disclosure practice and quality
– Climate risk management
– Carbon governance
– Carbon assurance and verification
– Capital market and real effect of decarbonisation
– Climate finance and green project management
– Blockchain enabled FinTech (or other emerging technologies) for carbon neutrality
– Other issues related to accounting for climate change (e.g. detecting greenwashing disclosure; carbon accounting literature review; carbon–water management synergy, etc).
GUEST CO-EDITORS:
Professor Peter Clarkson, University of Queensland, Australia
Email: p.clarkson@business.uq.edu.au
Associate Professor Amir Amel-Zadeh, Oxford University, UK
Email: amir.amelzadeh@sbs.ox.ac.uk
Associate Professor Yue LI, University of Toronto, Canada
Email: yueli@rotman.utoronto.ca
Professor Qingliang Tang, Western Sydney University, Australia
Email: q.tang@westernsydney.edu.au
Professor Simon Gao, Edinburgh Napier University, UK
Email: s.gao@napier.ac.uk
PROCESSES FOR SUBMISSION: We welcome all types of research papers including theoretical, empirical, case study and experimental. Carbon accounting has been recognised as an emerging discipline, so we encourage authors to use creative ideas, apply innovative and dynamic methodologies and adopt new research data. By submitting a paper via manuscript submission system of British Accounting Review, authors acknowledge (a) that the paper is original, unpublished work, (b) that in whole or material part it is not simultaneously under consideration of publication elsewhere. All submitted papers will be externally blind reviewed according to the standard and policy of the journal. All papers must be written in English and should follow the required style. Please send your enquiries to: Peter Clarkson, Email: p.clarkson@business.uq.edu.au; Yue LI, Email: yueli@rotman.utoronto.ca; Qingliang Tang, Email: q.tang@westernsydney.edu.au
Submission deadline: 20 February 2023
REFERENCES:
Amel-Zadeh, A; G Serafeim. 2018. Why and How Investors Use ESG Information: Evidence from a PRGlobal Survey. Financial Analysts Journal.
Clarkson, Peter M., Li, Yue, Pinnuck, Matthew and Richardson, Gordon D. (2015). The valuation relevance of Greenhouse Gas Emissions under the European Union Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme. European Accounting Review, 24 3: 551-580. doi:10.1080/09638180.2014.927782
Fan, Hanlu, Qingliang Tang, Lipeng Pan. 2020. An International study of Carbon Information Asymmetry and Independent Carbon Assurance. The British Accounting Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2020.100971
Gov.UK. 2021. Fact Sheet: Net Zero-aligned Financial Centre. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fact-sheet-net-zero-aligned-financial-centre/fact-sheet-net-zero-aligned-financial-centre
He, R, L Luo, Abul Shamsuddin, Qingliang Tang. 2021(a). The value relevance of corporate investment in carbon abatement: The influence of national climate policy. European Accounting Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638180.2021.1916979
He, R, L Luo, Abul Shamsuddin, Qingliang Tang. 2021(b). Corporate carbon accounting: A literature review of carbon accounting research from the Kyoto Protocol to Paris Agreement. Accounting and Finance. https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12789
IFRS Foundation/International Sustainability Standards Board. 2021. Climate-related Disclosure Prototype. Supplement: Technical Protocols for Disclosure Requirements. https://www.ifrs.org/content/dam/ifrs/groups/trwg/climate-related-disclosures-prototype-technical-protocols-supplement.pdf
IPCC 2019. Global warming of 1.5°C. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/06/SR15_Full_Report_High_Res.pdf
Nordhaus, William. 2019. "Climate Change: The Ultimate Challenge for Economics." American Economic Review, 109 (6): 1991-2014.DOI: 10.1257/aer.109.6.1991.
Stern, N. 2006. Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change. http://mudancasclimaticas.cptec.inpe.br/~rmclima/pdfs/destaques/sternreview_report_complete.pdf
Tang, Qingliang, Le Luo. 2014. Carbon Management Systems and Carbon Mitigation. Australian Accounting Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/auar.12010 United Nations FCCC. 2021. Glasgow Climate Pact. Advance version. https://unfccc.int/documents/310508
