The Vaasa conference “Accounting and Accountability for Climate Change” will be organized by the University of Vaasa on August, 13-14th, 2026. By integrating accountability, sustainability metrics and finance perspective, the conference promotes multidisciplinary dialogue to address climate-related challenges.
The conference is guided by scholars from different fields, including but not limited to accounting, finance, and financial economics disciplines. Through collaboration with practitioners and policy makers, the conference will develop and synthesize best practices to be disseminated to management, investors, regulators, and broader stakeholders, while encouraging further research on key issues.
Relevant topics for the conference include (but are not limited to):
• Climate and Biodiversity Reporting and Disclosure
• Incentives and Economic Impacts of Environmental Initiatives
• Capital Market Reactions to Climate-Related Disclosures
• Climate-related Risks and Financial Resilience
• Green Finance and Sustainable Investing
• Decision-Making Influenced by Environmental Disclosure and Performance
Keynote speaker:
Professor Peter Easton is the Notre Dame Alumni Professor of Accountancy and the Director of the Center for Accounting Research and Education (CARE) at the Mendoza College of Business. He is the Editor in Chief of Accountability in a Sustainable World Quarterly. He holds a PhD in accounting and finance from UC Berkeley. His expertise lies in accounting, sustainability, corporate valuation and financial statement analysis. Professor Easton has published in leading journals, including The Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies, Journal of Accounting Research, etc. Professor Peter Easton has received many honours including the Limperg Medal for his contribution to accounting research in The Netherlands and the AAA Financial Accounting Reporting Section Best Paper Award and he is a member of the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame.
The roundtable discussion will include representatives of business and policy makers including representatives of the Financial Stability Board.
Submission deadline: March, 15th, 2026.
The presenters of selected papers have an opportunity to publish their papers in a Special issue of Multinational Finance Journal.
The submissions must be in English.
There is no specific manuscript format and no page limit but papers should generally not exceed 50 pages.
Presenters of accepted papers must register as conference participants and pay the attendance fee as should non-presenters wishing to attend. The registration fee is 200 EUR for an academic; 150 EUR for a PhD student and 100 EUR for an accompanying person.
Authors of accepted papers will be notified by April 6, 2026.
The conference organizing committee:
Professor Agnes Cheng, The University of Oklahoma (USA)
Professor Stephen Penman, Columbia Business School (USA)
Professor Timothy King, the University of Vaasa (Finland)
Associate Professor Anupam Dutta, the University of Vaasa (Finland)
Associate Professor Tatiana King, the University of Vaasa (Finland)
Associate Professor Vanja Piljak, the University of Vaasa (Finland)
Assistant Professor Nebojsa Dimic, the University of Vaasa (Finland)