Agreeing on Accounting: The Emergence of Carbon Accounting as an Infrastructure for Evidence

Abstract

This article sheds light on how carbon accounting emerged as an infrastructure for evidence in transnational law and policy and why it stabilized over time. This historical case study uses documentary data on the events leading to the Paris Climate Agreement by tracing the abstract accounting provisions to various concrete meanings over time. The findings suggest that the emergence follows a cyclical negotiation process about normative meanings of carbon accounting shaped by professional logics. The paper extends existing models from object formation to infrastructure stabilization and calls for further research on expertise and evidence at the intersection of law, accounting, and organizations.

Keywords: evidence, expertise, carbon accounting, climate change, organizations