Accounting for climate impact and action is just a special case of impact accounting. We aim to make our ontology as generic as possible so that it can be applied to all forms and fields of impact accounting (i.e., to all SDGs).
Ontology
Our ontology currently comprises 15 classes and 15 axioms.
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Application of the ontology
Ontology (What are the 'things' that the accounting system should know about? What are the defining properties or characteristics of each 'thing'?) | Epistemology (How will the accounting system get information about these things and their attributes?) | Semiology (How will each of the things be represented in the accounting system?) | |
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Agents |
| An agent asserts their identity though digital signatures Agents provide proofs of their properties through verified credentials Other parties can verify agent properties and make claims about their methods and results | Digital signature Verified credentials Validation claim by third party |
Activities |
* An audit is a special type of activity where the input is a claim and the output is an evaluation of that claim. | Ex ante: An agent asserts their intentions to act in a Projet Design Document (PDD) Ex post: An agent describe their actions in a Projet Design Document (PDD) The activity and its results and impacts are documented by the agent at intervals in a monitoring report (MR) |
Consider a token for an activity that contains all the essential elements in column 1. Such a token must have a time limit and proof of life requirements (e.g. minimum process data feed to confirm it is ongoing) |
Environments |
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States |
*State as in environmental state (not political state) | Parameters/indicators for states Parameters/indicators delivered by agents via PDDs and MRs |
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Parameters |
(Emission factors are parameters, for example.) |
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Standards |
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Claims |
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For discussion: Where do we list the natural processes that lead to climate change? Should there be an event class? An event is like an activity but without the intention of an agent. An accident is an event but it is not an activity.
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