Green accounting and finance: advancing research on environmental disclosure, value impacts and management control systems

In recent decades, the business world – as well as society at large – has increasingly recognised the relevance of environmental factors as essential determinants of economic development and business decisions. Due to these short- and long-term effects of environmental factors on both the corporate and financial sectors, it is clear that business leaders and investors need to measure and manage these environmental risks as well as channel capital flows towards tackling the impact of such risks on business and society. As academic disciplines, accounting and finance play a key role in these efforts and are ideally placed to develop innovative approaches to incorporate environmental factors into accounting and risk management frameworks and to evaluate solutions to mobilise capital flows and finance the transition to a low-carbon and environmentally sustainable economy. This paper provides the editorial for a special issue in the British Accounting Review that aims to contribute to these important debates by offering new insights into three key areas of green finance and accounting research: firms’ environmental disclosure choices, the value impact of climate change and carbon emissions, and the latest research into environmental management control systems