The dataset for this study consists of public documents dealing with accounting for emission rights produced between 2003 and 2016. The dataset obtained from the EFRAG and IFRS archives consists in 68 primary documents (referenced in Supplementary_material_appendix Table A1), including IASB and FASB minutes, staff papers, ASAF minutes, agenda and research papers, meeting updates, and public reports. Additionally, the study analyzes 412 comment letters sent to four public consultations (referenced in Supplementary_material_appendix Table A2, Table A3, Table A4 and Table A5)., This work was supported by the Autorité des Normes Comptables under Grant CR 2016-012 and by Junta de Castilla y León (Grant BU029P23).

Since the withdrawal of IFRIC 3 in 2005, there has been a regulatory freeze in accounting for emission rights that contrasts with the international momentum of climate-related financial disclosures. This paper explores how different narratives and institutional dynamics explain the failure to produce guidance on accounting for emission rights.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper mobilises the notion of field-configuring events to examine a sequence of six events between 2003 and 2016, including four public consultations and two dialogues between standard setters. The paper presents a qualitative analysis of documents produced in this space that investigates how different practices and narratives configured the field's positions, agenda, and meaning systems.

Findings
Accounting for emission rights was gradually decoupled from climate change and carbon markets, relegated to the research pipeline, and forgotten. The obstacles that the IASB and EFRAG found in presenting themselves as central in the recurring events, the excess of representations, and the increasingly technical and abstract debates eroded the 2003 momentum for regulation, making the different initiatives to revitalise the project vulnerable and open to scrutiny. Lukes (2021) refers to nondecision-making to express that some issues are suffocated before they are expressed.

Originality/value
The regulation of accounting for emission rights, an area that has received scant attention in the literature, provides some insights into the different narrative mechanisms that, materialising in specific times and spaces, draw regulatory attention to particular accounting issues, which are problematised and, eventually, forgotten. This study also illustrates that identifying interests is problematic as actors shift from alternative positions over a long period. The case examined also raises some doubts about the previous effectiveness of international standard setters in dealing with matters of connectivity between the environment and finance, as is the case for accounting for emissions rights., Sophie Giordano-Spring and Géraldine Rivière-Giordano are grateful for the financial support by the Autorités des Normes Comptables and the French National Research Agency through the program “Investments for the Future” under reference number ANR-10-LabX-11-01. Carlos Larrinaga is grateful for the financial assistance provided by Spanish Ministry of Science & Innovation (Grant PID2021-122389OB-I00) and FEDER and Junta de Castilla y León (Grant BU029P23).

The EU Taxonomy Regulation relies on sustainability reporting to channel financial resources to sustainable activities. Financial institutions are key actors in the Taxonomy setting because they operate as financial intermediaries and have a dual role as both users and preparers of sustainability information. This paper investigates the perceived uncertainty that characterizes the sustainability reporting regulatory environment of a particular type of financial institution, banks, to identify the elements that generate that perception. Drawing on literature on regulatory uncertainty, this paper conducts a case study of the Spanish banking industry informed by interviews and complemented by other data sources. The analysis unveils two significant elements driving regulatory uncertainty: the Taxonomy’s lack of clarity regarding the operationalization of its measures and rules and the timeline and oversight of its implementation. The study also documents that the Taxonomy induces uncertainty in the non-regulatory environment due to its unpredictable impact on banks’ reputation and market competition, as well as to the changes it provokes in banks’ internal structures and processes to address regulatory requirements. As the perception of regulatory uncertainty represents an impediment to compliance, understanding the elements giving rise to it can help to mitigate such perception and facilitate the fulfillment of regulatory demands. This investigation offers implications for policy and practice to facilitate the production of the sustainability information banks must disclose according to the EU Taxonomy, particularly the green asset ratio., Nicolas Garcia-Torea and Mercedes Luque-Vílchez acknowledge the financial support provided by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (TED2021-129520B-I00), Agencia Nacional de Investigación (PID2021-122389OB-I00) and Junta de Castilla y León (BU069P20 y BU029P23).