 Carbon accounting for the translation of net-zero targets into business operationsElena Carrión, Carlos Larrinaga and Deborah Rigling Gallagher The British Accounting Review, 2025, vol. 57, issue 2 Abstract: This paper explores the translation of the global decarbonization goal into net-zero organizational targets. Building on the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework developed by Ostrom and focusing on the case of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), we study how accounting mediates in this translation. The study consists of an in-depth examination of SBTi's publicly available sources, which helped us identify and structure the subsequent analysis around four analytical dimensions: timeframe, target boundary, methods, and monitoring mechanisms. The findings of our analysis suggest that different points of friction are challenging the mediation of accounting and hindering the definition of net-zero targets and, therefore, corporate decision-making in response to climate urgency. The implications of our case spill over into recent sustainability standards, which provide a lower level of granularity in defining the technical accounting aspects of net-zero targets. Keywords: Carbon accounting; Net-zero emissions; Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi); Sustainability reporting frameworks (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:bracre:v:57:y:2025:i:2:s0890838924002208 DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2024.101456 Access Statistics for this article The British Accounting Review is currently edited by Nathan Lael Joseph and Alan Lowe More articles in The British Accounting Review from Elsevier |
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