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This means we are not just looking for a description of how things currently are; we are looking for a deeper description of what climate action and accounting are in essence. We are looking for a description of how things could be 100 years from now. We attempt to break the concept of climate action and the process of climate accounting down to their most essential structure structures and use that as a basis for designing representation thereof in software.
Impact accounting within the context of climate action and the SDGs
Overview
The surroundings of a living being, i.e., the space or sphere in which it operates or functions, is generally referred to as the environment of the living being. Earth, as the home of a vast number of living beings, can be seen as consisting of a vast number of environments. Some of these environments have clear geographical boundaries, but many do not; most of these environments in fact overlap or can be viewed as sub-environments of some larger environment (e.g., a tidal pool can be viewed as an environment on its own, but it can also be viewed as part of the environment of its surrounding shoreline).
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Figure 1: Environments within environments. The blue circle depicts Earth (the "global environment") as a subenvironment of the universal environment (the gray ellipsoid). The slightly transparent, green circles with dashed, brown borderlines represent the infinite number of possible environments of interest that exist within the global environment. The large green circle, populated with pictures of animals, trees and humans, depict one such possible environment of interest. The purple rectangle to the right of the diagram depicts the relationship between the (abstract) discipline of impact accounting and the real world - it intersects with reality, but can never account for reality in its fullness.
The problem of plurality
The problem is that humankind has, over the years, created different accounting standards for the same activities and agents, and the differences between them often lead to disagreements between their findings of how and to what extent a certain agent’s activities impact their environment. The solution to this problem is unfortunately not as simple as just choosing one of the standards and getting all of humankind to only use that standard henceforth – each of the standards have their strengths and weaknesses, and the arguments against a specific standard is often just as many as the arguments for that standard. The solution, instead, seems to lie in finding a structured way to compare the different standards – their requirements, their approaches, and what they take into account.
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R4 represents the relationship between two states of the same environment. This is the relationship that lies at the heart of impact accounting (represented by the rectangle and the bottom of the diagram). Impact accounting is concerned with why and how this state change occurred, i.e., who did what that led to this change in state. Agents submit claims about, and corresponding proofs for, their contributions to these state changes.
Generic formulation of
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impact accounting
Premise: An agent engages in an activity that impacts an environment.
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Accounting is the presentation, verification and aggregation of claims about agents, the outcome outcomes of the their activities and the nature and magnitude of the impact that they had/ve on states that are considered valuable.
A claim is made up of representations of the key aspects and dimensions of agents, activities and states as well as representations about the claim itself.
Some claims are proofs. A proof contains all the information needed to evaluate its veracity. Claims are often constructed from other claims.
environments.
Standards prescribe the content and structure of such claims and allow third parties to assess the veracity of thereof.
Epistemology
We know about things through direct participation in them or through representations.
For things we experience directly we do not need any further assurance that they are true.
Ontology, epistemology and semiology
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Ontology (What are the 'things' that the accounting system should know about? What are the defining properties or characteristics of each 'thing'?)
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Agents
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- unique identifier (identity)
- type (individual or group; if group, what type of group, e.g. organisation, company or movement; auditor)
- Develop or source a schema describing a minimum set of properties by agents type
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
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Digital signature
Verified credentials
Validation claim by third party
Activities
- activity class (e.g. IPCC categories)
- activity description including objective(s)
- location
- start time
- end time (possibly)
- agent
- input(s) (e.g. materials and energy; consumables and non-consumables)
- process(es): a process links inputs to products and waste
- output(s) product + waste
objective (experience, create, reduce, destroy, avoid, verify) (optional / not required in all instances)
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Ex post: An agent describe their actions in a Projet Design Document (PDD)
The
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- unique identifier
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process
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States
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- state definition (How to decide relevance?: Checlklist?)
- location and temportal extent (either objective or referential)
- metrics refereing to parameters
- type (actual [measured] or baseline [counterfactual])
*State as in environmental state (not political state)
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Indicators for states
Indicators delivered by agents via PDDs and MRs
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- unique identifier
- Impact claim per state
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- name
- definition
- unit of measure
- rationale
- calculation
- credibility
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- unique identifier
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- name
- author(s)
- applicability - type of agent, type of activity, state
- requirements (e.g. reporting requirements, calculation requirements)
- version
- method(s)
- precision
- accuracy / std error
- emission factors (defaults)
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- unique identifier
of impact accounting
Someone or something gathers data
- observes Observes a phenomenon using some instrument.
Someone or something presents data as a claim
- A claim concerns at least one property of an agent or activity or one paramater of a state and is accompanied by metadata (e.g., about the instrument, agent and sampling frame).
Someone or something evaluates the claim
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.
(Where do impact claims fit in? Standards contain requirements for claims and claims are made up of indicators and assertions)
An impact claim (a state change claim)
- agent
- activity
- "before" state for every every environment and aspect of the state under consideration
- "after" state for every every environment and aspect of the state under consideration
- causal connection between activity and the resultant state (e.g. scope 1 (primary/secondary), scope 2 or scope 3)
- standard followed
For discussion: Where do we list the natural processes that lead to climate change?
A claim is made up of representations of the key aspects and dimensions of agents, activities and states as well as representations about the claim itselff.
Some claims are proofs. A proof contains all the information needed to evaluate its veracity. Claims are often constructed from other claims.
Someone or something evaluates the claim(emission factors are indicators)