A recent paper in Environmental Research Letters has sparked discussion about practical accounting of carbon dioxide from power plants. The authors of the paper, Drs. Steven Davis of UC Irvine and Robert Socolow of Princeton, argue for a calculation of the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted as opposed to tracking annual emissions.
Davis explains the value of this in the “video abstract” below.
Professor Dan Kammen, Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Research Letters, is quoted in the New York Times, highlighting the usefulness of such commitment accounting:
Even for entities not ready to implement a price on carbon, simply making this accounting a business requirement would dramatically advance the calculation along the lines that Davis and Socolow recommend.
Read more of Dr. Kammen’s quote and about the discussion here.