Organizational climate accounting-financial consequences of climate change impacts and climate change adaptation

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how climate change impacts and related climate change adaptation measures affect positions of traditional financial accounting, i.e. the balance sheet and the profit and loss account. We conduct a content analysis based on 57 in-depth expert interviews with CEOs of different industry sectors in one distinct region of Western Europe. Our analysis reveals that the balance sheet is affected mainly by climate change impacts on the following positions: intangible assets, tangible assets, inventories, receivables and other assets, cash-in-hand, prepaid expenses, and on equity/accruals/liabilities. The profit and loss account is influenced mostly by climate change impacts but also by related adaptive measures on the following positions: sales, own work capitalized, energy costs as part of material costs, material costs, personnel expenses, selling expenses, insurance costs, other operating income, other operating expenses, depreciations and amortization, disposal costs, interests, extraordinary income, and extraordinary expenses. Interestingly, the positions sales and energy costs, as part of material costs, can also be affected positively. To gain deeper insights, an investigation in other regions and industry sectors should be realized. Furthermore, based on our definition of organizational climate accounting and our classification into a three-stage approach, we suggest three areas for future research: first, to analyze the traditional financial accounting for the mitigation perspective; second, to investigate if organizations should react rather anticipatorily or reactively by using the Net-Effect; third, to analyze the environmental impacts of mitigation and adaptation measures by realizing a life cycle assessment. We contribute to accounting science by conducting the first comprehensive study on how climate change impacts and related climate change adaptation measures influence traditional financial accounting. Additionally, we propose a definition for organizational climate accounting.