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Counting the Environment: The Environmental Implications of International Accounting Standards

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  • Jason Thistlethwaite

    (Jason Thistlethwaite is a PhD candidate in Global Governance at the University of Waterloo, a SSHRC Doctoral Fellow and Balsillie Fellow. He completed his master's degree in political science at the University of Western Ontario. His research is focused on explaining the politics and strategy behind the banking, insurance and accounting sectors' responses to climate change. He also researches international financial regulatory reform and global climate change politics.)

Abstract

Although rarely studied, international accounting standards shape what information regarding a firm's environmental performance is communicated to international financial markets. This article builds on scholarship describing the influence of international accounting standards on private financial markets to show that nominally technical choices regarding how to recognize and measure firms' environmental impacts hold the potential to reduce these impacts. Obscure accounting debates within the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) mask important political choices about what a firm must disclose to investors about its environmental liabilities and risks. IASB decisions about how these appear on corporate balance sheets change the link between a firm's environmental performance and its economic value and, thereby, contribute to steering private financial markets toward rewarding sustainable behavior within the global economy. This analysis demonstrates the authority of the IASB as an overlooked source of global environmental governance. (c)© 2011 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Suggested Citation

  • Jason Thistlethwaite, 2011. "Counting the Environment: The Environmental Implications of International Accounting Standards," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 11(2), pages 75-97, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:glenvp:v:11:y:2011:i:2:p:75-97
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    Cited by:

    1. Palea, Vera, 2014. "Financial Reporting for Varieties of Capitalism: The Case Against a Single Set of International Financial Reporting Standards," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201442, University of Turin.
    2. Dimmelmeier, Andreas, 2021. "Sustainable Finance as a Contested Concept: Tracing the Evolution of Five Frames Between 1998 and 2018," SocArXiv 7jhgp, Center for Open Science.
    3. Thereza RS de Aguiar, 2018. "Turning accounting for emissions rights inside out as well as upside down," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(1), pages 139-159, February.
    4. Jason Thistlethwaite & Matthew Paterson, 2016. "Private governance and accounting for sustainability networks," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(7), pages 1197-1221, November.
    5. Palea, Vera, 2013. "The Politics of Fair Value Reporting and the Governance of the Standards-Setting Process: Critical Issues and Pitfalls from a European Perspective," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201353, University of Turin.
    6. Palea, Vera, 2017. "Whither accounting research? A European view," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 59-73.
    7. Palea, Vera, 2015. "The political economy of fair value reporting and the governance of the standards-setting process: Critical issues and pitfalls from a continental European union perspective," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 1-15.

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