What (and who) counts? The science, law, and policy of greenhouse gas accounting
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting forms the basis of many climate policies. Responsible actors such as governments and corporations rely on GHG accounting—the practice of quantifying and reporting GHG emissions—to produce the emissions inventories that both inform and substantiate their efforts to mitigate climate change. For example, the United Nations Paris Agreement relies on countries' national GHG inventories to determine the progress they are making toward their climate pledges. And yet, our world is filled with "unaccounted-for" GHGs: emissions that are both measurable and caused by human activity but that are excluded from these institutional inventories. These emissions omissions may have profound consequences for the success of climate mitigation, because progress toward emissions reduction pledges can only be ascertained against GHG inventory trends. The wider the shortfall between institutionally accounted-for and scientifically estimated GHG emissions, the less effective climate policies will be. In this dissertation, I explore how these discrepancies in GHG accounting have impacts on climate action. I first introduce emissions omissions and examine their impacts on climate law, drawing on other areas of law to address them. Building on this work, I next explore how inadequate GHG accounting practices may exacerbate environmental harms, and how leveraging GHG accounting can serve as an environmental justice strategy. Finally, to better understand how accounting decisions may impact state-level climate policies, my coauthors and I examine California's approach to accounting for GHG emissions from biofuels. Collectively, my research explores how GHG emissions science does (or does not) get incorporated into law and policy—and how that may impact both people and climate progress.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2024; ©2024 |
| Publication date | 2024; 2024 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Yona, Leehi |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Honigsberg, Colleen |
| Degree supervisor | Jackson, Rob, 1961- |
| Thesis advisor | Honigsberg, Colleen |
| Thesis advisor | Jackson, Rob, 1961- |
| Thesis advisor | Mach, Katharine J |
| Degree committee member | Mach, Katharine J |
| Associated with | Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (Stanford University) |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Leehi Yona. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (Stanford University). |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2024. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/fb279xr0810 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2024 by Leehi Yona
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