Accounting and Environmental Sustainability: the role of Carbon Disclosure

The global nature of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the related local effects of such emissions, pose a wide array of challenges. Action is needed to tackle the issue ranging from measurement and assessment to monitoring and reporting environmental performance, at a global, national, organizational and even product scale. Such challenges have a common goal: carbon accounting, an emerging and rapidly evolving research and experimental field. The aim of this paper is to map and analyze the state of the art in the area of carbon accounting and reporting to devise a systematic framework relative to the diverse initiatives. It propose to delineate a detailed scenario of the various experiences in carbon accounting with particular reference to the most significant experience in carbon accounting and reporting: the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and the Carbon Disclosure Project. Future directions and challenges relative to dealing with climate change to support environmental sustainability based on fair carbon management are suggested.