The Attributional-Consequential Distinction and Its Applicability to Corporate Carbon Accounting

Brander, Matthew; Ascui, Francisco

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-27718-9_5

Cited by 10 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 44 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…J. Plevin et al, 2014a;Brander and Ascui, 2015). Nevertheless, the nuances of that debate are sufficiently fine-grained that any alternative interpretations are highly unlikely to yield alternative classifications of the published greenhouse gas accounting standards.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…The criterion used to identify attributional methods is: the method aims to quantify and allocate absolute emissions/removals to a given entity or item. These defining characteristics are those identified in Brander and Ascui (2015), which collates a number of definitions for the 'consequential' and 'attributional' approaches in the LCA literature, and provides an analysis of the essential and supplementary features of the two types of approach.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Transposing lessons between different forms of consequential greenhouse gas accounting: lessons for consequential life cycle assessment, project-level accounting, and policy-level accounting

Brander

2016

Journal of Cleaner Production

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

a b s t r a c tGreenhouse gas accounting has developed in a number of semi-isolated fields of practice and there appears to be considerable opportunity for transposing methodological innovations and lessons between these different fields. This research paper identifies three consequential forms of greenhouse gas accounting: consequential life cycle assessment; project-level accounting; and policy-level accounting. These methods are described in detail and then compared in order to identify the key methodological differences and the potential lessons that can be transposed between them. Analysis of the substantive methodological differences suggests that consequential life cycle assessment could be enhanced by adopting the same structure used in project and policy-level accounting, which provides a time-series of impacts, aggregate level analysis, and a transparent specification of the baseline and decision scenarios. There is a case for conceptualising a unified form of consequential time-series assessment, of which project, policy and product assessments would be sub-types.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transposing lessons between different forms of consequential greenhouse gas accounting: lessons for consequential life cycle assessment, project-level accounting, and policy-level accounting

Brander

2016

Journal of Cleaner Production

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Apart from being used in conjunction with electricity disclosure, RE-GOs are also bought and used for allocating CO2 emissions to a company or a product. Brander and Ascui (2015) describe this as purchasing a "contractual emissions factor". According to Raadal (2013), 'zero emissions' is the prevailing interpretation of CO2 emissions in electricity RE-GOs.…”

Section: The Use Of Renewable Guarantees Of Origin In Europementioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Brander and Ascui (2015), the most common form of carbon accounting on company scale is an inventory of a company's physical GHG emissions, carried out according to a protocol such as the Corporate Standard. Research by Luo et al (2012) has shown that voluntary disclosure of the results of corporate GHG inventories is more common for larger companies and companies in GHG-intensive sectors.…”

Section: Corporate Ghg Inventorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to the results, the corporate GHG inventory does not capture the full consequences of the fuel change with regard to global GHG emissions. Furthermore, an attributional-consequential distinction, which is applied in life cycle assessment (LCA) (see section 5.2.1), is suggested by Brander and Ascui (2015) to be used for corporate GHG inventories.…”

Section: Corporate Ghg Inventorymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Corporate and city GHG inventories : Impact on global CO₂ emissionswhen considering electricity and CHP-based district heating

Nordenstam¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

One initiative to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions involves developing standards for GHG inventories. Companies and cities (regions) can use GHG inventories to compile and report their GHG emissions. Standards for corporate and city GHG inventories often claim that GHG inventories can be used for identifying emissions opportunities, building reduction strategies and setting, measuring and reporting emissions targets. Attributional emissions factors are generally used in corporate and city GHG inventories. For purchased electricity, heat and steam, this means using average emission factors for regional or national production of each energy carrier. Also contractual emissions factors can be used. Changes in emissions from affected production elsewhere are not included. For purchased electricity and district heating (DH), a GHG inventory can be improved by lowered purchases or by purchasing a different energy carrier. Furthermore, combined heat and power (CHP) technology can help reduce global GHG emissions in the supply and conversion of energy, as CHP production is more efficient than conventional separate production of electricity and heat. In CHP production, excess heat from electricity production is utilised for heating buildings, hot water, industry processes etc., either directly or through DH systems. This thesis analyses how emissions reduction measures based on corporate or city GHG inventories, carried out using GHG Protocol standards, affect global CO2 emissions when electricity or CHP-based DH is affected. The incentive of a GHG inventory to a company purchasing electricity and DH, and to a city regarding purchases and production of electricity and DH in its region, is analysed. This is done for GHG inventories conducted in a nation where electricity produced within the nation is regarded as CO2-lean (Sweden) and in a nation where it is more CO2-rich (Germany). The indirect incentive to the DH company to change its production, in order to improve the GHG inventory of its customers and of the city where the DH system is located, is also analysed. Consequential analyses are used to assess how global CO2 emissions are affected by changes in purchases or production of electricity and DH that are incentivised by the GHG inventories studied. These consequential analyses include changes in emissions from affected electricity production elsewhere. The results show that the strength of incentive to reduce purchase of electricity or CHP-based DH by a company or in a city can differ between GHG inventories and consequential analysis. This is most clear when electricity produced within the nation is regarded as CO2lean (Sweden) while affected electricity production elsewhere is CO2-rich. For replacing purchases of CHP-based DH with electricity, or vice versa, the incentive in a GHG inventory can be the reverse of that in a consequential analysis. Moreover, the incentive to lower the use of electricity is lost when contractual emissions factors with zero emissions, such as First, I wish to thank Anders Jonsson,...

show abstract

Process Mining for Carbon Accounting: An Analysis of Requirements and Potentials

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Attributional-Consequential Distinction and Its Applicability to Corporate Carbon Accounting

Cited by 10 publications

References 44 publications

Transposing lessons between different forms of consequential greenhouse gas accounting: lessons for consequential life cycle assessment, project-level accounting, and policy-level accounting

Transposing lessons between different forms of consequential greenhouse gas accounting: lessons for consequential life cycle assessment, project-level accounting, and policy-level accounting

Corporate and city GHG inventories : Impact on global CO₂ emissionswhen considering electricity and CHP-based district heating

Process Mining for Carbon Accounting: An Analysis of Requirements and Potentials

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

The Attributional-Consequential Distinction and Its Applicability to Corporate Carbon Accounting

Cited by 10 publications

References 44 publications

Transposing lessons between different forms of consequential greenhouse gas accounting: lessons for consequential life cycle assessment, project-level accounting, and policy-level accounting

Transposing lessons between different forms of consequential greenhouse gas accounting: lessons for consequential life cycle assessment, project-level accounting, and policy-level accounting

Corporate and city GHG inventories : Impact on global CO2 emissionswhen considering electricity and CHP-based district heating

Process Mining for Carbon Accounting: An Analysis of Requirements and Potentials

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Corporate and city GHG inventories : Impact on global CO₂ emissionswhen considering electricity and CHP-based district heating