IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v47y2015i9p1787-1804.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measure for measure? Commensuration, commodification, and metrology in emissions markets and beyond

Author

Listed:
  • Mark H Cooper

Abstract

The proliferation of markets and market-based policy instruments in environmental governance is premised on the establishment of metrological regimes and the practices of measurement, commensuration, and commodification that underlie these regimes. This paper develops the concept of metrology and examines its role in the function and dysfunction of emissions trading markets. The concept invites us to question the social, political, and scientific conditions under which agreements about measurement and commensuration do or do not occur, and the consequences or effects of particular metrological systems. The paper provides three examples of how measurement, commensuration, and commodification have framed the design and function of emissions markets in order to illustrate the effects of particular metrologies on market rule. Contrary to claims that measurement serves as a means to ‘cool’ political disputes, this paper argues that because markets inevitably have distributional effects, the metrological systems which frame market design are frequently a site of focused political contestation. Seeing measurement and commensuration as inherently political can also provide insight into ongoing disagreements about the appropriate metrics and responsibilities for mitigating climate change and the form and function of markets more generally.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark H Cooper, 2015. "Measure for measure? Commensuration, commodification, and metrology in emissions markets and beyond," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(9), pages 1787-1804, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:47:y:2015:i:9:p:1787-1804
    DOI: 10.1068/a130275p
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a130275p
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a130275p?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel Johansson, 2012. "Economics- and physical-based metrics for comparing greenhouse gases," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 110(1), pages 123-141, January.
    2. Asdal, Kristin, 2011. "The office: The weakness of numbers and the production of non-authority," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 1-9, January.
    3. Tina Fawcett & Yael Parag, 2010. "An introduction to personal carbon trading," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(4), pages 329-338, July.
    4. Adam G. Bumpus & Diana M. Liverman, 2008. "Accumulation by Decarbonization and the Governance of Carbon Offsets," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 84(2), pages 127-155, April.
    5. Mark H. Cooper & Jonathan Boston & John Bright, 2013. "Policy challenges for livestock emissions abatement: lessons from New Zealand," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 110-133, January.
    6. John Daniel & Susan Solomon & Todd Sanford & Mack McFarland & Jan Fuglestvedt & Pierre Friedlingstein, 2012. "Limitations of single-basket trading: lessons from the Montreal Protocol for climate policy," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 111(2), pages 241-248, March.
    7. Callon, Michel, 2009. "Civilizing markets: Carbon trading between in vitro and in vivo experiments," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(3-4), pages 535-548, April.
    8. Adam G. Bumpus & Diana M. Liverman, 2008. "Accumulation by Decarbonization and the Governance of Carbon Offsets," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 84(2), pages 127-155, April.
    9. Adam Moolna, 2012. "Making Sense of CO_2: Putting Carbon in Context," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 12(1), pages 1-7, February.
    10. MacKenzie, Donald, 2009. "Making things the same: Gases, emission rights and the politics of carbon markets," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(3-4), pages 440-455, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rashid Khan, Haroon Ur & Islam, Talat & Yousaf, Sheikh Usman & Zaman, Khalid & Shoukry, Alaa Mohamd & Sharkawy, Mohamed A. & Gani, Showkat & Aamir, Alamzeb & Hishan, Sanil S., 2019. "The impact of financial development indicators on natural resource markets: Evidence from two-step GMM estimator," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 240-255.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Spash, Clive L. & Theine, Hendrik, 2016. "Voluntary Individual Carbon Trading," SRE-Discussion Papers 2016/04, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
      • Clive L. Spash & Hendrik Theine, 2016. "Voluntary Individual Carbon Trading," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2016_04, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    2. Lauren Gifford, 2020. "“You can’t value what you can’t measure”: a critical look at forest carbon accounting," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 161(2), pages 291-306, July.
    3. Markus Lederer, 2012. "Market making via regulation: The role of the state in carbon markets," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(4), pages 524-544, December.
    4. Jayme Walenta, 2020. "Climate risk assessments and science‐based targets: A review of emerging private sector climate action tools," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(2), March.
    5. Brett Christophers & Patrick Bigger & Leigh Johnson, 2020. "Stretching scales? Risk and sociality in climate finance," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(1), pages 88-110, February.
    6. Svenja Keele, 2019. "Consultants and the business of climate services: implications of shifting from public to private science," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 9-26, November.
    7. Francisco Ascui & Heather Lovell, 2011. "As frames collide: making sense of carbon accounting," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(8), pages 978-999, October.
    8. Esteve Corbera & Katrina Brown, 2010. "Offsetting Benefits? Analyzing Access to Forest Carbon," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(7), pages 1739-1761, July.
    9. Evangelia Apostolopoulou & Elisa Greco & William M Adams, 2019. "Biodiversity Offsetting and the Production of 'Equivalent Natures': A Marxist Critique," Post-Print halshs-02441026, HAL.
    10. Kristin Asdal & Noortje Marres, 2014. "Performing Environmental Change: The Politics of Social Science Methods," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(9), pages 2055-2064, September.
    11. Sam Hartmann & Sebastian Thomas, 2020. "Applying Blockchain to the Australian Carbon Market," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 39(2), pages 133-151, June.
    12. Wim Carton & Adeniyi Asiyanbi & Silke Beck & Holly J. Buck & Jens F. Lund, 2020. "Negative emissions and the long history of carbon removal," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(6), November.
    13. Kristin Asdal, 2014. "From Climate Issue to Oil Issue: Offices of Public Administration, Versions of Economics, and the Ordinary Technologies of Politics," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(9), pages 2110-2124, September.
    14. Natalie Slawinski & Jonatan Pinkse & Timo Busch & Subhabrata Bobby Banerjeed, 2014. "The role of short-termism and uncertainty in organizational inaction on climate change: multilevel framework," Working Papers hal-00961226, HAL.
    15. Kaidonis, Mary & Moerman, Lee & Rudkin, Kathy, 2009. "Paradigm, paradox, paralysis: An epistemic process," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 285-289.
    16. Frank Hartmann & Paolo Perego & Anna Young, 2013. "Carbon Accounting: Challenges for Research in Management Control and Performance Measurement," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 49(4), pages 539-563, December.
    17. Josefa Sánchez Contreras & Alberto Matarán Ruiz & Luis Villodres Ramírez & Celia Jiménez Martín & Guillermo Gámez Rodríguez & Rafael Martín Pérez & Álvaro Campos-Celador, 2024. "Energy Colonialism in Europe: A Participatory Analysis of the Case of Granada (Spain)," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-27, January.
    18. Anna Davies & Niamh Kirwan, 2010. "Rescaling climate justice: sub-national issues and innovations for low carbon futures," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp340, IIIS.
    19. Howard, Rebecca Joy & Tallontire, Anne & Stringer, Lindsay & Marchant, Rob, 2015. "Unraveling the Notion of “Fair Carbon”: Key Challenges for Standards Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 343-356.
    20. Nabernegg, Stefan & Bednar-Friedl, Birgit & Muñoz, Pablo & Titz, Michaela & Vogel, Johanna, 2019. "National Policies for Global Emission Reductions: Effectiveness of Carbon Emission Reductions in International Supply Chains," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 146-157.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:47:y:2015:i:9:p:1787-1804. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.