Carbon Accounting and Sustainability

Background:
It has become alarmingly apparent that moving towards a low-carbon world is critical. For current and future accounting professionals, these changes carry an opportunity to directly support climate change mitigation in many ways. This group is led by Professor Qingliang Tang, and consists of active researchers from Australia, North America, the UK, China and Hong Kong. The members of the group are among the top 50 authors in the field of carbon accounting in terms of citation in business journals (Zahra Borghei 2021) and top contributors to publication on carbon accounting in accounting journals (He et al. 2021).

Our research team contributes to the knowledge in understanding how accounting can play a role in transition to carbon neutrality. We focus on developing carbon management frameworks and providing research-based insights for policymakers and companies. Our research helps Australian firms to achieve longterm sustainable development by adopting proactive climate-change strategy. It explores how businesses change their carbon disclosure, performance and management practices in response to new carbon regulations, and how these changes may impact business operations and stakeholders’ behaviours and decisions. All these research projects have significant practical implications and help our industries better transition to carbon neutrality.

We have developed various carbon accounting teaching materials for undergraduate and postgraduate students so that they are equipped with the most cutting-edge carbon accounting knowledge. We have a strong publication track record in carbon accounting. Our team has so far published book chapters and papers in high-quality international research journals (including 4A* and 21A), and our paper ‘Gender Diversity, Board Independence, Environmental Committee and Greenhouse Gas Disclosure’, published in British Accounting Review (A*), was recognised as the most cited article (all-time) in 2021 (Google Scholar citations: 910).

We have led and participated in many competitive research projects funded both internally and by external funding organisations. Furthermore, we currently have six higher degree by research (PhD and master’s) students at Western Sydney University and have had six PhD students in carbon accounting complete within the past 10 years at Western Sydney University alone – excluding those at other universities in our group. In addition, one of our PhD graduates, Le Luo, was named on Stanford University’s prestigious World’s Top 2% Scientists List (in the Accounting field), which lists the most widely cited of the more than 8 million active scientists worldwide in various disciplines. Moreover, our group members have served as ad hoc reviewers for more than 30 high-quality journals and as associate editors, guest editors and editorial board members for a range of the top accounting journals.

Researchers:
Professor Qingliang Tang
Dr Hanlu (Ruby) Fan
Professor Yi-Chen Lan

External Research Partners:
Professor Hongtao Shen | Jinan University
Professor George Shan | University of Western Australia
Professor Simon Gao | Edinburgh Napier University
Professor Robin Hui Huang | Chinese University of Hong Kong
Professor Yue Li | University of Toronto
Dr Le Luo | Macquarie University
Dr Lie Ming Tang | University of Sydney