Climate (in)Justice in Action? A Commentary on COP28 and Emerging Accounting Mechanisms

With the concept of ‘just transition’ entering the mainstream of intergovernmental climate negotiations, social and environmental accounting scholars have a new and critical role in the global pursuit of climate justice. At its core, accounting mechanisms are being called upon to navigate a paradox inherent to the just transition: pursuing scalability through standardisation and simultaneously prioritising a tailored approach to national and sub-national contexts. While we venture potential conceptual approaches to grapple with this paradox, our priority for this article is to outline what we hope is a starting point for an agenda on accounting for climate justice. It, therefore, looks to provoke debate on an array of research questions and interventions, from the role of COPs (Conferences of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) in giving birth to new accounting mechanisms, to the need to engage with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to highlight the relevance of accounting research in operationalising climate justice. Irrespective of how our community responds, notions of climate justice are already being made manifest in the international accounting mechanisms that aim to guide a just transition. We therefore call for action from the social and environmental accounting community.