Carbon Accounting Takes Spotlight as New Disclosure Rules Loom

As US companies prepare for looming climate disclosure mandates in Europe and California, corporate accountants are quickly adding carbon accounting to their toolkit—wrangling greenhouse gas emissions along with traditional finance figures like revenue and assets.

Corporate accountants are digging into environmental details that companies already publish voluntarily and looking for gaps they’ll have to fill to meet new European Union requirements, which take effect in 2024. Under the rules, companies will disclose any material risks from climate change and their business’s impact on the environment.

Europe’s far-reaching reporting mandate will eventually cover US companies operating in the economic bloc. California’s ...