Accounting for Impact

The document highlights a gap in corporate carbon accounting, noting that current practices focus more on the assignment of emissions than on the actual impact of climate actions. It advocates for consequential accounting to ensure that novel business models for emissions reduction deliver genuine progress toward 1.5°C goals.

• Current corporate carbon accounting practices prioritize the assignment of emissions over the assessment of the actual impact resulting from climate actions.
• As companies move from setting targets to implementation, they are adopting new business models for emissions reduction that some critics believe lack real-world impact.
• Consequential accounting methods are essential for evaluating and incentivizing a company's efforts to reduce emissions and for proving progress toward climate targets.

APA

RMI (2023). Accounting for Impact. https://rmi.org/resources/accounting-for-impact/

Chicago

RMI. Accounting for Impact. 2023. https://rmi.org/resources/accounting-for-impact/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Accounting for Impact |date=9 February 2023 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/accounting-for-impact/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2023accounting, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Accounting for Impact}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2023}, month = feb, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/accounting-for-impact/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }