Carbon accounting
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009) |
Carbon accounting refers generally to processes undertaken to “measure” amounts of carbon dioxide equivalents emitted by an entity. It is used inter alia by nation states, corporations and individuals. Correspondingly, examples for products based upon forms of carbon accounting can be found in national inventories, corporate environmental reports or carbon footprint calculators. Likening sustainability measurement, as an instance of ecological modernisation discourses and policy, carbon accounting is hoped to provide a factual ground for carbon-related decision-making. However, social scientific studies of accounting challenge this hope,[1] pointing to the socially constructed character of carbon conversion factors[2] or of the accountants' work practice[3] which cannot implement abstract accounting schemes into reality,[4] as Lucy Suchman would argue.
Contents |
[edit] Carbon accounting in corporations
Carbon accounting can be used as part of sustainability accounting by for-profit organisations.
[edit] Carbon accounting of avoided emissions
A special case of carbon accounting is the accounting process undertaken to measure the amount of carbon dioxide equivalents that will not be released into the atmosphere as a result of flexible mechanisms projects under the Kyoto Protocol[citation needed]. These projects thus include (but are not limited to) renewable energy projects and biomass, forage and tree plantations.
[edit] Carbon accounting software
A number of programs are created in order to assist with carbon accounting.
[edit] See also
- Carbon Disclosure Project
- Enterprise carbon accounting
- Flexible Mechanisms
- Greenhouse gas accounting
- Accounting
[edit] References
- ^ L. Lohmann. Toward a different debate in environmental accounting: The cases of carbon and cost–benefit. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 34:499–534, Apr 2009.
- ^ D. MacKenzie. Making things the same: Gases, emission rights and the politics of carbon markets. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 34(3-4):440–455, Apr 2009.
- ^ I. Lippert. Extended carbon cognition as a machine. Computational Culture, 1(1), 2011.
- ^ L. Suchman. Human-machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Action. Cambridge University Press, 2 edition, 2007.
- Renewable Fuels Association (December 12, 2011). "Dance of the ethanol giants: US and Brazil in shuffle game". Western Farm Press. http://westernfarmpress.com/government/dance-ethanol-giants-us-and-brazil-shuffle-game. Retrieved December 17, 2011.
- "Carbon accounting provides sustainable outlook". TAFE SA, Government of South Australia. November 4, 2011. http://www.tafesa.edu.au/news/11-11-04/Carbon_accounting_provides_sustainable_outlook.aspx. Retrieved December 17, 2011.
