IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v34y2025i5p5925-5946.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Accounting and Accountability in the Transition to Zero‐Carbon Energy for Climate Change: A Systematic Literature Review

Author

Listed:
  • Assunta Di Vaio
  • Meghna Chhabra
  • Anum Zaffar
  • Daniel Balsalobre‐Lorente

Abstract

This study investigates the body of literature on decarbonization management practices that use renewable resources and green technologies to meet zero‐carbon energy targets for achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 to ‘Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts’. Starting with the ongoing discussion surrounding the development of an information architecture to support effective decision‐making in decarbonization processes, this study explores the role of accounting models in measuring and reporting decarbonization effects and accountability models that ensure that firms track progress, take responsibility for their environmental and social impacts and address challenges. These models guide resource allocation and adoption of green technologies to meet sustainability targets. A systematic literature review (SLR) was performed to clarify how scholars have addressed issues regarding zero‐carbon energy for mitigating climate change through accounting and accountability models. SLR was performed on 319 English articles published in the Scopus database and Google Scholar between 1990 and 2024. The results highlight that firms face extensive pressure from stakeholders and regulatory bodies regarding the legitimacy and transparency of decarbonization practices to meet zero‐carbon energy requirements. The content analysis results revealed that sustainability reporting is useful for firms in rethinking decarbonization initiatives and linking them to the achievement of zero‐carbon energy goals. Accounting and accountability models that embrace green technologies and renewable resources have increased institutional and stakeholder acceptance. This study is the first to examine how accounting and accountability systems can play a key role in firms through integrated thinking, which moves from integrated zero‐carbon reporting to zero‐carbon energy and the adoption of green technologies in decarbonization processes. This approach allowed us to discover accounting and accountability models through sustainable thinking for integrated accountability reporting during the twin transition process.

Suggested Citation

  • Assunta Di Vaio & Meghna Chhabra & Anum Zaffar & Daniel Balsalobre‐Lorente, 2025. "Accounting and Accountability in the Transition to Zero‐Carbon Energy for Climate Change: A Systematic Literature Review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(5), pages 5925-5946, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:34:y:2025:i:5:p:5925-5946
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.4282
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.4282
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.4282?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:bstrat:v:34:y:2025:i:5:p:5925-5946. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    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.