TRASCENDER, CONTABILIDAD Y GESTIÓN

A work in which a practicingprofessional expresses a conclusiondesigned to improve the degree ofconfidence of the intended users,other than the responsible party,about the result of the evaluation ormeasurement of an issue in relationto the criteria (Bui et al., 2021, p.13).

Three of the most recent and important work oncarbon assurance were carried out by Datt et al. (2018,2019, 2020), where they mention that companies canchoose to hire carbon guarantee services due to verydifferent reasons, since carbon assurance is considered acomplex and strategic practice. In addition, they arguethat the carbon assurance is a response to the legitimacythreats that companies face because of severe climatelegislation and an increase in public awareness for thewell-being of the environment.

Another reason why organizations choose to hireservices of this type is to reduce information asymmetry.The carbon assurance helps companies reduce theasymmetry of information that exists for this issuebetween management and stakeholders due to its natureof being an independent service, since the informationthat is disclosed tends to be minimal or differentregarding the information that their managers have (Dattet al., 2020; Fan et al., 2021; Shen et al., 2020).

On the other hand, carbon assurance services currentlyhave two main types of service providers, and they areaccounting companies (e.g., Big four), and consultingcompanies (He et al., 2021). Fan et al. (2021) mentionthat, to provide carbon assurance services, the members

of the accounting firms adhere to the InternationalStandard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3410,which stipulates specific guidelines for the guarantee ofGHG statements.

It should be noted that the reason for going to anaccounting company, or a consulting company dependson the objective that the company wants to achieve. Forexample, Datt et al. (2020) comment that the reason forhiring an accounting company is because of theindependence they offer due to their professional codeof ethics, which causes greater credibility and trust inthe information that is verified, but on the other hand, aconsulting company has the advantage that it canprovide better assistance in seeking improvements incarbon management systems due to the high technicalknowledge they possess.

In short, the carbon assurance is important especiallybecause companies are offering incentives to theiradministration to carry out greenwashing practices withrespect to their carbon information, to get out of the wayof institutional and global pressures on their GHGemissions (Shen et al., 2020). However, in countrieswhere the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification(MRV) stage is not yet fully developed, other tools willhave to be developed to identify those companies thatcarry out greenwashing.

Fan et al. (2021) comment that carbon assurance isemerging as a flourishing market and widespreadpractice for accounting firms and other consultingorganizations and is playing an increasingly importantrole in managing the business transition to a future freeof carbon. Greater efforts are required to empiricallyinvestigate carbon assurance, which has been rare todate, mainly because data is limited (Hahn et al., 2015).

Vol. 7, núm. 21 / septiembre – diciembre del 2022

Cumpean, J., Briseño, A., y Zorrilla Del Castillo, A. L.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.36791/tcg.v7i21sept-dic.178Pp. 143-165