Are you interested in learning about innovative policy and financial mechanisms designed to rapidly decarbonize the global economy? Join SFI’s monthly seminar on the third or fourth Thursday of the month from 4:00 - 5:00 pm PST to meet our faculty and fellows and learn more about our ongoing research projects.

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol was developed as a method to assess risk in anticipation of a global price on carbon. As governments and investors attempt to use it to draft disclosure regulation and make material investment decisions, the limits of the protocol are becoming apparent. In this seminar on Thursday, January 26, Alicia Seiger, Lecturer at Stanford Law School and Managing Director of Stanford's Sustainable Finance Initiative and Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, will present straightforward changes to adapt the current practice of carbon counting to carbon accounting – a method that allows companies to assemble carbon balance sheets analogous to financial accounting. Carbon accounting paves the way to scaling investment in decarbonization, increasing the cost of capital to high emitters, bringing discipline and structure to offset markets, and aligning corporate, national and global carbon ledgers.  

Recommended Reading:

• The Road to Climate Stability Runs through Emissions Liability Management
• Securities and Exchange Commission Comments
• Accounting for Climate Change
• "The Road from Scope 3 to Net Zero" in Settling Climate Accounts: Navigating the Road to Net Zero (SUNet ID required for access) or search for it on SearchWorks