The first issue in 2014 of the CSEAR
journal is a special issue on “Carbon Accounting: The Contribution of Social
and Environmental Accounting to the Debate”, guest edited by myself, featuring
three main contributions by Francisco Ascui (University of Edinburgh), Martin
Freedman and Jin Dong Park (Towson University) and Begoña Giner (Univesity of
Valencia).
Ascui’s paper is a review of carbon
accounting literature that provides insight into the directions in which SEA
research should move to make a more ambitious contribution in the area. He
contends that the focus of carbon accounting research is relatively confined to
content analyses of corporate disclosures, opening the opportunity to conduct
research in other areas, such as the interplay between carbon markets and
financial accounting.
Freedman and Park examine the compliance of
certain public US firms with mandatory disclosures on climate change,
concluding that the regulation produced an increase in disclosure, but also a
diversity of disclosure practices among companies.
Begoña Giner, member of the Advisory
Council of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and former member
of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), examines the
evolution of carbon financial accounting regulation and uses a suggestive
currency metaphor to suggest an alternative carbon financial accounting approach
based on considering emission allowances as payment instruments.
