The Development and Implementation of New Forms of Carbon Accounting in Companies in China

Abstract

This study investigates how Chinese enterprises implement diverse forms of carbon accounting under dynamic external pressures in the context of China’s ‘Dual Carbon’ targets announced in 2020. While international research has established broad conceptual frameworks for carbon accounting, its practical development and implementation within China’s context remain under-explored. Drawing on 28 semi-structured in-depth interviews with industry practitioners in China in 2025, this study uncovers the experiences, motivations, challenges, and reflections of enterprises, offering empirical insights often inaccessible through dominant quantitative approaches.

This study seeks to make three key contributions. First, drawing on semi-structured interviews with practitioners, this study reveals three main forms of corporate carbon accounting practices in China, and the interactions between covert corporate practices and institutional contexts; underscoring the importance of examining corporate carbon accounting and accountability within a relatively authoritarian setting.

Second, this study unpacks the significance of the Target Responsibility System at corporate level and provides longitudinal empirical evidence that complements prior research, which has focused almost exclusively on the bureaucratic dimensions of the system.

Last but not the least, this research advances the adoption of qualitative methods in the Chinese accounting context, advocating for their broader application to uncover more dynamic and deeply embedded social phenomena, and offering insights into how to effectively further explore structural and institutional factors that shape corporate responses to evolving external pressures.