Carbon assurance: A structured literature review

Abstract

There are limited integratory studies on carbon assurance, as such literature is fragmented which hinders growth of scholarship. The review thus, seeks to consolidate and organise the formative literature in the multidisciplinary research fields of accounting, business, and management by investigating the approaches, themes, and the theoretical underpinnings of carbon assurance to guide future research. The structured literature review uses a qualitative, inductive content analysis, to analyse themes from the data. Findings reveal four carbon assurance approaches, namely, carbon audit compliance, assurance of carbon management, assurance of governmental climate change, and assurance of greenhouse gas statement, the most discussed in literature. The review further reveals awareness about climate-change and regulation of emissions as antecedents of carbon assurance. The practice improves credibility of carbon disclosures but is hindered by inaccurate measurement of carbon emissions. The approaches are theorised under stakeholder, stakeholder-agency, legitimacy theories, among others. The need to gain competitive advantage, recognition, and awards are some of the drivers of carbon assurance growth. A narrow focus was placed on greenhouse gas emissions, hence, the social and environmental subject matters, as studied in the broad sustainability assurance were not reviewed. The review fills gaps in literature by identifying the approaches of carbon assurance, emerging themes, and theoretical underpinnings.