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Corporate Carbon and Climate Accounting pp 27–44Cite as

Decision Support Through Carbon Management Accounting—A Framework-Based Literature Review

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Abstract

Purpose: Managing corporate carbon performance has seen a rapid development as a topic for the past decade. To effectively reduce corporate climate change impacts requires decisions on tracking and tracing of carbon emissions in a systematic manner. Yet, methods to manage information on corporate carbon performance have hardly been discussed in the extant literature. Whilst the global greenhouse gas emissions are further increasing, the total amount of corporate emissions has only decreased in some advanced companies. This raises the question of what decision situations a performance oriented carbon management accounting could support and in which areas research could be further developed to support carbon management efficiently and effectively. Method: A literature review was conducted to identify the current state of development of CMA. Relevant publications were analysed by means of taxonomic analysis. Findings: The analysis of academic CMA publications shows that the existing contributions on CMA methods only support few decision situations, still leaving many areas open for future research and practice. Implications: This chapter highlights the need for decision oriented research that enables CMA to fulfil its objective, i.e. to contribute to the efficient and effective reduction of carbon emissions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Friedrich-Alexander Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

    Dimitar Zvezdov

  2. Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM), Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany

    Stefan Schaltegger

Authors
  1. Dimitar Zvezdov
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  2. Stefan Schaltegger
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Correspondence to Dimitar Zvezdov .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Sustainability Management, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany

    Stefan Schaltegger

  2. Friedrich-Alexander University, Nürnberg, Bayern, Germany

    Dimitar Zvezdov

  3. University of Basque Country, San Sebastian, Spain

    Igor Alvarez Etxeberria

  4. Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

    Maria Csutora

  5. TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Edeltraud Günther

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Zvezdov, D., Schaltegger, S. (2015). Decision Support Through Carbon Management Accounting—A Framework-Based Literature Review. In: Schaltegger, S., Zvezdov, D., Alvarez Etxeberria, I., Csutora, M., Günther, E. (eds) Corporate Carbon and Climate Accounting. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27718-9_2

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