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A practice-centered analysis of environmental accounting standards: integrating agriculture into carbon governance

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  • Wolf, Steven A.
  • Ghosh, Ritwick

Abstract

Standards for carbon accounting are a core element of environmental governance. We study the production of standards as situated and practical action, which is shaped by opportunities, resource constraints, and existing infrastructure. Careful observations of this work reveals what people do and how they organize their actions relevant to the particular questions, conventions, and resources at hand. We apply this practice-centered, ethnomethodological approach to study the creation of an accounting protocol for nitrous oxide emissions from corn production, an effort within the broader project of enlisting agriculture in carbon markets. We find that efforts to create a far-reaching, rigorous, and efficient standard were frustrated by lack of data, contestation of knowledge claims, and the challenges of collapsing real-world heterogeneity into a model and a set of tidy decision rules. In this sense, carbon accounting standards should be understood as provisional, and potentially unstable, compromises.

Suggested Citation

  • Wolf, Steven A. & Ghosh, Ritwick, 2020. "A practice-centered analysis of environmental accounting standards: integrating agriculture into carbon governance," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:96:y:2020:i:c:s0264837717313704
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.08.003
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Joskow, Paul L & Schmalensee, Richard & Bailey, Elizabeth M, 1998. "The Market for Sulfur Dioxide Emissions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(4), pages 669-685, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mascha Gugganig & Karly Ann Burch & Julie Guthman & Kelly Bronson, 2023. "Contested agri-food futures: Introduction to the Special Issue," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(3), pages 787-798, September.
    2. Lijuan Yang, 2024. "The economics of standards: A literature review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 717-758, July.
    3. Anna Christy & Marwa Elnahass & Jaime Amezaga & Anthony Browne & Oliver Heidrich, 2024. "A dynamic framework to align company climate reporting and action with global climate targets," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 3103-3128, May.

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