Climate change accounting: the challenge of uncertainty in Pacific Islands

Abstract

The paper aims to set out several key issues in relation to climate change research based on accounting and accountability. It also outlines using a case study of the Pacific Islands about the problem of uncertainty in relation to climate change, particularly in regards to the rising water levels and potential relocation of peasants from the atoll islands of Kiribati, Tuvalu and Marshall Islands. The literature on climate change accounting and the archival data on climate change from the Pacific Islands are reviewed. Some interviews with people located on the coastal areas of the Pacific Islands known to one of the researchers are conducted. The interviewees are from Kiribati and Fiji. Despite growing corporate activity on climate change, no meaningful progress is being made on GHG emissions reduction, and in some cases no meaningful progress is being made on natural Kyoto emission reduction targets, suggesting the continuation of a relatively weak policy regimes and 'business-as-usual'. However, the Paris agreement recognized the specific needs and special circumstances of developing countries and acknowledged that climate change is a common concern of human kind. The agreement resolved to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2º above preindustrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 º above preindustrial level. Such modest increase would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change. The research is limited to Pacific Islands only but provides avenue for such work to be extended to other research settings as well. The call for more research on climate change is arguably more relevant today given misgivings on market-based solutions and the consensus reached from the Paris agreement recently. There has been relatively little work done in climate change accounting in the Pacific Islands where an immense impact has been felt on people's lives and livelihoods as well as on important industries such as agriculture and tourism as a consequence of climate change such as rising water levels.

Carbon controls in a New Zealand electricity utility: An application of theoretical triangulation

“…Carbon management has become an organisational priority as emission trading schemes or reporting regulations are introduced or planned worldwide (Bui & de Villiers, 2017; Clarkson et al, 2015; Kumarasiri & Gunasekarage, 2017; Lodhia & Martin, 2011; Rankin et al, 2011). Accordingly, in recent years there has been an increasing number of studies published in top Asia‐Pacific journals, covering a wide range of issues including organisational attitudes and adaptation to climate change, market reactions to carbon government policies and changes in carbon disclosure and control systems to manage carbon disclosure (Bremer & Linnenluecke, 2017; Bui et al, 2020; Han et al, 2019; Hartmann et al, 2013; Krishnamurti & Velayutham, 2018; Linnenluecke et al, 2015; Sharma et al, 2017; Tekathen et al, 2019).…”

“…Although companies have started to integrate carbon issues into external reporting and/or management control systems (Bui & Fowler, 2019; Burritt et al, 2011; Engels, 2009; McNicholas & Windsor, 2011), there is little research on why and how organisations design and use them in a changing societal and regulatory environment. Further, much more work needs to be done to address the actual dynamics of organisational emissions reductions programmes (Sharma et al, 2017) and of climate change measurement, control and accountability processes within organisations (Bui & de Villiers, 2017; Cooper & Pearce, 2011). This research is made more important because of the lack of meaningful progress being made in emissions reductions to meet the Paris target (UNFCC, 2019).…”