A commentary on E-liability: does it bring something new to GHG accounting?

E-liability is a proposed new approach for corporate-level greenhouse gas accounting, winning the 2022 Harvard Business Review-McKinsey Award for “groundbreaking management thinking”. It is actively promoted by the E-liability Institute and piloted by major international companies, such as Hitachi a...

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Main Authors: Matthew Brander, Marian Gatzweiler
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2024-12-01
Series:Carbon Management
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/17583004.2024.2372331
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author Matthew Brander
Marian Gatzweiler
author_facet Matthew Brander
Marian Gatzweiler
author_sort Matthew Brander
collection DOAJ
description E-liability is a proposed new approach for corporate-level greenhouse gas accounting, winning the 2022 Harvard Business Review-McKinsey Award for “groundbreaking management thinking”. It is actively promoted by the E-liability Institute and piloted by major international companies, such as Hitachi and Tata Steel. The intention is that E-liability should replace the widely adopted GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting & Reporting Standard, which underpins recent regulatory standards including the IFRS Climate-related Disclosures Standard, and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards. It is therefore important to ask what is new and what are the merits of E-liability? One positive feature of E-liability that could be adopted or enhanced in the established GHG Protocol approach is the direct requirement for suppliers to disclose cradle-to-gate data to downstream customers. However, one of the major limitations with E-liability is the limited provision of information on downstream emissions, which reduces the usefulness of disclosures for managing the abatement of these emissions, and for assessing company exposure to climate-related risk. Our analysis concludes that much of what is proposed in the E-liability method is not new, and that the key aspects that are new result in a detrimental loss of information.
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spelling doaj-art-ec9befbcf33448ecb1f718fecadaa7002025-08-20T01:59:09ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCarbon Management1758-30041758-30122024-12-0115110.1080/17583004.2024.2372331A commentary on E-liability: does it bring something new to GHG accounting?Matthew Brander0Marian Gatzweiler1Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability, University of Edinburgh Business School, Edinburgh, UKUniversity of Edinburgh Business School, Edinburgh, UKE-liability is a proposed new approach for corporate-level greenhouse gas accounting, winning the 2022 Harvard Business Review-McKinsey Award for “groundbreaking management thinking”. It is actively promoted by the E-liability Institute and piloted by major international companies, such as Hitachi and Tata Steel. The intention is that E-liability should replace the widely adopted GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting & Reporting Standard, which underpins recent regulatory standards including the IFRS Climate-related Disclosures Standard, and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards. It is therefore important to ask what is new and what are the merits of E-liability? One positive feature of E-liability that could be adopted or enhanced in the established GHG Protocol approach is the direct requirement for suppliers to disclose cradle-to-gate data to downstream customers. However, one of the major limitations with E-liability is the limited provision of information on downstream emissions, which reduces the usefulness of disclosures for managing the abatement of these emissions, and for assessing company exposure to climate-related risk. Our analysis concludes that much of what is proposed in the E-liability method is not new, and that the key aspects that are new result in a detrimental loss of information.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/17583004.2024.2372331E-liabilitycritiquecorporate GHG accountingGHG protocolscope 1, 2, and 3
spellingShingle Matthew Brander
Marian Gatzweiler
A commentary on E-liability: does it bring something new to GHG accounting?
Carbon Management
E-liability
critique
corporate GHG accounting
GHG protocol
scope 1, 2, and 3
title A commentary on E-liability: does it bring something new to GHG accounting?
title_full A commentary on E-liability: does it bring something new to GHG accounting?
title_fullStr A commentary on E-liability: does it bring something new to GHG accounting?
title_full_unstemmed A commentary on E-liability: does it bring something new to GHG accounting?
title_short A commentary on E-liability: does it bring something new to GHG accounting?
title_sort commentary on e liability does it bring something new to ghg accounting
topic E-liability
critique
corporate GHG accounting
GHG protocol
scope 1, 2, and 3
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/17583004.2024.2372331
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