Emissions calculation device, emission calculation method and program

Abstract

To easily enable the accounting of appropriate greenhouse gas emissions by using accounting data in an organization such as an enterprise.SOLUTION: An emission amount totalizing device 1 has an emission amount management unit 121 for acquiring accounting data generated about an entrepreneur participating in greenhouse gas emissions trading from the entrepreneur, determining whether there are unclear account items or expense from a viewpoint of calculating a greenhouse gas emission amount related to account items included in the accounting data or expense included in each account item, acquiring a record about corresponding account items or expense from the entrepreneur in the case of determining that there are unclear account items or expense, and calculating a greenhouse gas emission amount corresponding to each account time or expense on the basis of the record.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an emission amount totalizing device, an emission amount totalizing method, and a program. [Background technology]

[0002] Curbing emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2, which are believed to be one of the causes of global climate change, is an urgent issue today. To effectively curb greenhouse gas emissions, countries have adopted emissions trading systems (also called "emissions trading schemes," but the term "emissions trading" is used in this specification) under which emission allowances for greenhouse gases such as CO2 are allocated to each country and company, and these allowances are traded between countries and companies that emit in excess of their allowances and countries and companies that have surplus allowances. In recent years, based on the recognition that changes in the global environment require further acceleration of greenhouse gas emission curbs, not only relatively large companies that have traditionally participated in emissions trading, but also so-called small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are being called upon to promote carbon neutrality through participation in emissions trading.

[0003] When participating in emissions trading, in order to maintain fairness among participants and the soundness of the emissions trading market, it is necessary to properly tally the greenhouse gas emissions of each participant. For example, in Patent Document 1, a company's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are calculated based on account titles, items, and product names and corresponding intensity information. In addition, in Patent Document 2, for example, in order to prevent improper accounting of emissions when purchasing goods, it is proposed that electronic payments be made when the payment amount and emissions are below their respective upper limits, based on the payment amount, the purpose of the purchased goods, and the corresponding CO2 emissions. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 6864404 [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-244345 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] However, Patent Document 1 does not specifically mention how to deal with cases where there are unclear items in the account headings, item names, or product names when calculating GHG emissions. Furthermore, Patent Document 2 does not determine whether the use of purchased items is appropriate for calculating CO2 emissions. To enable organizations, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, that may find it difficult to allocate additional personnel for emissions trading to participate in emissions trading, there is a need for a system that makes it as easy as possible to appropriately calculate greenhouse gas emissions.

[0006] In order to solve the above and other problems, one object of the present invention is to provide an emissions calculation device, an emissions calculation method, and a program that enable organizations such as companies to easily calculate appropriate greenhouse gas emissions by using accounting data. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] One aspect of the present invention is an emissions aggregation device that includes a processing unit that acquires accounting data generated for a business operator participating in greenhouse gas emissions trading from the business operator, determines whether any of the account items or expense items included in each account item included in the accounting data are unclear from the perspective of calculating greenhouse gas emissions, and if it determines that there are any unclear account items or expense items, acquires records related to the relevant account items or expense items from the business operator, and calculates the greenhouse gas emissions corresponding to each account item or expense item based on the records. [Effects of the Invention]

[0008] According to the present invention, by utilizing accounting data, organizations such as companies can easily and appropriately calculate greenhouse gas emissions. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] 1 is a system configuration diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of an emission amount totalization system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] 1 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration and functions of an emission amount totalizing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3] 2 is a block diagram illustrating the hardware configuration and functions of a carrier terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. [Figure 4] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a business operator emission amount storage unit of the emission amount totalizing device. [Figure 5] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of an accounting data storage unit of a business operator terminal device. [Figure 6] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of an emission trading storage unit of the emission totalization device. [Figure 7] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a business operator information storage unit of the emission amount totalization device. [Figure 8] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of an emission amount calculation data storage unit of the emission amount totalizing device. [Figure 9] 4 is a flowchart illustrating data processing by the emission amount totalizing device according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 10] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of a business operator terminal device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0010] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on an embodiment thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0011] <Emissions calculation system> FIG. 1 illustrates an example of the overall configuration of an emissions aggregation system S according to one embodiment of the present invention. The emissions aggregation system S illustrated in FIG. 1 is configured by an emissions aggregation device 1 and a business operator terminal device 2 that are communicably connected via a network 3. The network 3 can be configured to include various communication networks such as the Internet, a WAN, a LAN, and a mobile communication network. The emissions aggregation device 1 and the business operator terminal device 2 are each configured as a computer with a communication function. The emissions aggregation device 1 and the business operator terminal device 2 may each be configured as a cloud computing system made up of a plurality of nodes distributed over the network 3. A system that makes up an emissions trading market M, which will be described later, can also be connected to the network 3.

[0012] In the emissions aggregation system S of FIG. 1, the emissions aggregation device 1 collects accounting data generated and recorded in each business terminal device 2 from each business terminal device 2 and aggregates the greenhouse gas emissions of the organization, such as the company, to which each business terminal device 2 belongs, based on the acquired accounting data. Because greenhouse gas emissions are calculated based on the accounting data recorded by each organization, the calculated emissions are highly reliable. For account items or expense items in the accounting data that are unclear as to whether they are appropriate as base data for emissions calculation or are unclear for emissions calculation, the accounting data references supporting documents such as receipts and delivery notes that form the basis of the account items or expense items, thereby ensuring the reliability of the calculated emissions data. Furthermore, the calculated greenhouse gas emissions are subject to necessary revisions based on the results of periodic audits of the underlying accounting data. This also ensures the reliability of the greenhouse gas emissions calculated for the organization. The emissions aggregation device 1 may be configured as an independent device for aggregating emissions, or may be provided as part of an emissions trading intermediary system that trades greenhouse gas emissions aggregated from each business operator terminal device 2 and other terminal devices in the emissions trading market M. In either case, the greenhouse gas emissions aggregated by the emissions aggregation device 1 can be traded in the emissions trading market M.

[0013] The business operator terminal device 2 is installed in an organization such as a company, and holds accounting data (ledger data) recorded in the organization. The accounting data includes, for example, data recorded by general accounting software. There are no particular limitations on the type or size of the organization, but the business operator terminal device 2 can be suitably installed in small and medium-sized enterprises, sole proprietors, etc., due to its feature of being able to easily and accurately tally greenhouse gas emissions.

[0014] The configurations of the emission amount calculation device 1 and business operator terminal device 2 that make up the emission amount calculation system S of this embodiment, and the data processing they perform, will be described later with reference to drawings and the like relating to an example data processing flow. For simplicity, hereinafter in this specification, "greenhouse gas" will be referred to as "CO2," which is the representative component. Furthermore, for simplicity, the greenhouse gas emissions received by the emission amount calculation device 1 from each business operator will be referred to as "CO2 emissions (or simply "emissions" if not unclear)" or "emission allowances."

[0015] <Emissions counting device 1> 2 is a block diagram illustrating the hardware configuration and functions of the emission amount totalizing device 1 of this embodiment. In Fig. 2, the emission amount totalizing device 1 includes a processor 11 such as a CPU or a GPU, a memory 12 having storage devices such as a ROM or a RAM, an auxiliary storage unit 13 having storage devices such as an HDD or an SSD, an input / output unit 14 having input devices such as a keyboard, a touch panel, a mouse, and a microphone, and output devices such as a monitor display, a speaker, and a printer, a data interface unit (data IF unit) 15 that transmits and receives data between the various hardware units, and a communication unit 16 that communicates with the network 3.

[0016] The business operator terminal device 2 described later can also be basically configured as a computer having the hardware configuration shown in FIG.

[0017] Next, the functions of the emission amount totalizing device 1 according to this embodiment will be described again with reference to Fig. 2. The emission amount totalizing device 1 has the functional blocks of an emission amount management unit 121, an emission amount verification unit 122, and an emission amount trading unit 123. These functional blocks are realized by the processor 11 in Fig. 2 executing the corresponding programs, and each program can be stored in the auxiliary storage unit 13 and read into the memory 12 by the processor 11 for execution.

[0018] The data used by the above-mentioned functional blocks is stored in data storage areas provided in the auxiliary storage unit 13, such as the business operator emission storage unit 131, the emissions trading storage unit 132, the business operator information storage unit 133, and the emissions calculation data storage unit 134. As shown in the example of Fig. 2, the business operator emission storage unit 131, the emissions trading storage unit 132, the business operator information storage unit 133, and the emissions calculation data storage unit 134 are stored in correspondence with the business operator terminal device 2 owned by each business operator, such as business operator A and business operator B. This is to grasp the CO2 emissions for each business operator that owns the business operator terminal device 2. Each data storage area will be described later with examples.

[0019] The emission management unit 121 has a function of calculating, aggregating, and recording data on the amount of CO2 emissions for each business. The CO2 emissions calculated for each business terminal device 2 are stored in the business emission storage unit 131.

[0020] In this embodiment, the CO2 emission data recorded by the emission management unit 121 is calculated based on accounting data generated and recorded by the business operators that own each business operator terminal device 2. Specifically, the accounting data is ledgers and documents recorded using accounting software or the like. As is well known, the expenses of the business operators are recorded in ledgers, sorted into account items and expense items. The emission management unit 121 calculates the CO2 emission amount by using the unit CO2 emission amount corresponding to each item based on the account items and expense items.

[0021] FIG. 4 shows an example of the configuration of the business operator emission amount storage unit 131. The business operator emission amount storage unit 131 shown in FIG. 4 stores CO2 emissions corresponding to account items and expense items included in the accounting data of the business operator. Here, reference is made to an example of the emission amount calculation data storage unit 134 shown in FIG. 8. The emission amount calculation data storage unit 134 stores unit emission amount data used by the emission amount management unit 121 to calculate CO2 emissions. For example, the unit of CO2 emissions for electricity used is recorded in g / kWh, and the unit of CO2 emissions for using trains as a means of transportation is recorded in g / km. The emission amount management unit 121 calculates the CO2 emissions corresponding to the expenditures recorded in the accounting data by multiplying the quantity of each expense item by the unit emission amount shown in FIG. 8.

[0022] This is not a problem if the accounting data includes quantities that can be used to calculate emissions. However, if accounting data only records amounts, it may not be possible to directly calculate emissions. In such cases, the emissions management unit 121 can obtain the quantities necessary to calculate emissions by referencing documents related to expenses for which emissions cannot be calculated (e.g., invoices, receipts, delivery notes, etc.) by linking with the accounting software used by the business to create accounting data. It is even more preferable if the referenced supporting documents are converted to text data via OCR processing or other means. For example, if the accounting data only records the payment amount for gasoline used in a company car, the emissions management unit 121 can obtain the quantity (liters) of gasoline used by referencing the supporting documents linked to the relevant expense item. Then, it can calculate CO2 emissions using this quantity and the unit CO2 emissions per liter of gasoline. CO2 emissions calculated based on accounting data in this way are highly reliable and well-founded, making them suitable for emissions trading.

[0023] The emissions verification unit 122 performs a process of correcting the CO2 emissions of each business calculated by the emissions management unit 121 based on accounting data, based on the results of an accounting audit conducted by the business at regular intervals, such as semi-annually. Even CO2 emissions calculated based on accounting data may include CO2 emissions associated with vehicle use that should be excluded from the accounting books as personal use. When such accounting problems are corrected by an accounting audit, in this embodiment, the emissions verification unit 122 makes the necessary corrections to the CO2 emissions recorded in the business emissions storage unit 131 by referring to the results of the accounting audit. Such corrections make the CO2 emissions data recorded for each business more reliable.

[0024] The emissions trading unit 123 executes emissions trading based on the CO2 emission data for each business that is recorded in the business emission memory unit 131. The emissions trading unit 123 may directly access the system of the emissions trading market M (FIG. 1) via the network 3 to conduct trading, or may conduct trading via another system that mediates emissions trading. Records of emissions trading by the emissions trading unit 123 are stored in the emissions trading memory unit 132. FIG. 6 shows an example of the emissions trading memory unit 132. In the example of FIG. 6, the emissions trading memory unit 132 records purchased emissions and sold emissions, and each record identified by an ID records the date of the transaction, purchase / sale destination, purchased / sold quantity, and purchased / sold amount.

[0025] The business operator information storage unit 133 stores data used by the emissions aggregation device 1 to calculate and aggregate CO2 emissions for each business operator as business operator information. FIG. 7 shows an example of the business operator information storage unit 133. The business operator information storage unit 133 shown in FIG. 7 stores items such as terminal identification information (e.g., terminal ID, password, etc.) that identifies each business operator terminal device 2 when connecting to the emissions aggregation device 1, accounting data linkage information that allows the emissions aggregation device 1 to access the accounting data of each business operator, owned vehicle information used to calculate emissions related to travel by company car, energy contract information such as electricity, and financial institution transaction information. Regardless of the above example, the business operator information storage unit 133 may store any information necessary for emissions calculation as appropriate. For example, the accounting data linkage information may include linkage information for directly accessing accounting software, accounting service systems, etc. used by each business operator to obtain necessary data.

[0026] According to the emission amount calculation device 1 in this embodiment described above, various businesses, including relatively small businesses such as small and medium-sized enterprises and sole proprietors, can enjoy a simple and highly reliable CO2 emission amount calculation and calculation service.

[0027] <Operator terminal device 2> Next, the business operator terminal device 2 will be described. Fig. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the hardware configuration and functions of the business operator terminal device 2 of this embodiment. In Fig. 3, the business operator terminal device 2 includes a processor 21, a memory 22, an auxiliary storage unit 23, an input / output unit 24, a data IF unit 25, and a communication unit 26, similar to the emission amount totalizing device 1 described above.

[0028] Next, the functions of the business operator terminal device 2 will be described again with reference to Fig. 3. The business operator terminal device 2 has the functional blocks of an emission management unit 221 and an emission trading request unit 222. These functional blocks are realized by the processor 21 in Fig. 3 executing the corresponding programs, and each program can be stored in the auxiliary storage unit 23 and read into the memory 22 by the processor 21 for execution.

[0029] The data used by the above-mentioned functional blocks is stored in an accounting data storage unit 231, an emission data storage unit 232, and a business information storage unit 233, which are data storage areas provided in the auxiliary storage unit 23.

[0030] The emissions management unit 221 has a function of managing the CO2 emission data that is calculated and tallied by the emissions aggregation device 1 based on accounting data recorded by the business operator and notified to the business operator terminal device 2 of the business operator. The emissions data notified from the emissions aggregation device 1 is stored by the emissions management unit 221 in the emissions data storage unit 232 of the auxiliary storage unit 23. The configuration of the emissions data storage unit 232 may be substantially similar to the example configuration of the business operator emissions storage unit 131 of the emissions aggregation device 1 illustrated in FIG. 4. Based on the trends in the CO2 emission data recorded in the emissions data storage unit 232, each business operator can execute emissions trading or encourage business members to reduce CO2 emissions, as will be described later.

[0031] The emissions trading request unit 222 has a function of requesting the emissions totalizing device 1 or another system in the emissions trading market M accessible via the network 3 to execute a transaction such as buying or selling CO 2 emissions.

[0032] The accounting data storage unit 231 stores accounting data recorded by businesses that own the business terminal devices 2 using accounting software or the like, specifically, data related to accounting procedures journalized into account items and expense items. FIG. 5 shows an example of the configuration of the accounting data storage unit 231. The configuration of the accounting data storage unit 231 illustrated in FIG. 5 has been described as the data that forms the basis for calculating the emissions data recorded in the business emissions storage unit 131 (FIG. 4) in the emissions calculation device 1, so a duplicated description will be omitted here. In this way, accounting data recorded using accounting software or the like may be stored in each business terminal device 2, or, if the accounting software or the like is implemented using cloud computing, the accounting data can be accessed as needed and downloaded for use. In this case, the emissions calculation device 1 can obtain the accounting data used for calculating emissions by directly accessing the accounting software or the like.

[0033] The business operator information storage unit 233 stores information about the business operator that owns the business operator terminal device 2, and corresponds to the data stored in the business operator information storage unit 133 in the emission amount totalization device 1. When a change occurs in the business operator information registered in the emission amount totalization device 1, the business operator can request the emission amount totalization device 1 to register the change via the emission amount management unit 221.

[0034] According to the above-described business operator terminal device 2, each business operator can easily carry out emissions trading and consider measures to reduce emissions using CO2 emissions data calculated based on accounting data.

[0035] <Data processing by the emissions calculation device 1 and business operator terminal device 2> Next, we will explain the data processing executed by the emission amount calculation device 1 and business operator terminal device 2 in the above-described embodiment. Note that, during the emission amount calculation process, the business operator terminal device 2 mainly has a passive function of providing data necessary for emission amount calculation in response to access from the emission amount calculation device 1 and receiving the calculated emission amount data, so we will not explain the function of the business operator terminal device 2 alone.

[0036] <<Data processing by the emissions aggregation device 1>> The data processing executed by the emission amount totalizing device 1 having the above-described configuration and functions will be described with reference to Fig. 9. Fig. 9 is a flowchart showing an example of data processing by the emission amount totalizing device 1. The emission amount totalizing device 1 executes basic data processing, namely, acquiring accounting data of each business operator participating in the emission amount totalizing system S (Fig. 1) of this embodiment from the business operator terminal device 2 held by each business operator, and calculating highly reliable CO2 emission data based on the acquired accounting data.

[0037] 9, in step S1, the emission management unit 121 of the emission amount totalizing device 1 executes the following processing steps S2 to S8 for each business operator terminal device 2. In the data processing of FIG. 9, it is assumed that the business operator terminal device 2 has already performed the login processing required to exchange data with the emission amount totalizing device 1.

[0038] In step S2, the emission management unit 121 acquires accounting data for one business operator terminal device 2 from its accounting data storage unit 231. At this time, instead of accessing the business operator terminal device 2 as described above, the accounting data may be acquired by directly accessing the accounting software, accounting service system, etc. that created the accounting data. The timing for acquiring the accounting data may be, for example, after the monthly accounting deadline, when the accounting data for that month is recorded.

[0039] In step S3, the emission management unit 121 determines whether the account titles and expense items in the acquired accounting data contain any items that are unclear for calculating CO2 emissions. If it determines that there are any unclear items (YES in step S3), in step S4, the emission management unit 121 accesses the accounting data storage unit 231 of the business operator terminal device 2 to acquire supporting document data determined to be related to the unclear items. As described above, the supporting document data is data related to supporting documents such as invoices, receipts, delivery notes, and settlement statements. It can be text data generated from each supporting document through OCR processing or other suitable digital data such as image data of each supporting document. The emission management unit 121 can link the unclear items to the supporting documents based on data such as the date, issuer, item, and quantity contained in the supporting documents, and acquire the quantity data necessary for calculating emissions. Alternatively, supporting document data supporting the unclear items may be stored in advance in the accounting data, linked to each account title and expense item. The emission management unit 121 then proceeds to data processing in step S5. If it is determined in step S3 that there is no unknown item, the emission management unit 121 also proceeds to data processing in step S5.

[0040] In step S5, the emission management unit 221 calculates the CO2 emissions for each account item and expense item in the accounting data using the data stored in the emission calculation data storage unit 134 and records the calculated CO2 emissions in the business emission storage unit 131.

[0041] In step S6, the emission management unit 121 determines whether the accounting data storage unit 231 of the business operator terminal device 2 contains audit results, which are the results of an accounting audit of the business operator. If it determines that there are no audit results (NO in step S6), the emission management unit 121 proceeds to data processing in step S8. If the emission management unit 121 determines that there are audit results (YES in step S6), in step S7, the emission management unit 121 refers to the audit results to check whether the accounting data used to calculate the CO2 emissions in step S5 has been corrected, and corrects the calculated CO2 emissions as necessary. The emission management unit 121 then proceeds to data processing in step S8. This correction of emissions based on the accounting audit results is performed each time an accounting audit is conducted, for example, every fiscal year or every six months, but may be performed more frequently to increase the reliability of the calculated emissions.

[0042] In step S8, the emission management unit 121 notifies the business operator terminal device 2 of the totaled CO2 emission amount, and ends the series of data processing for the business operator terminal device 2.

[0043] In step S9, the emission management unit 121 determines whether an instruction to end data processing has been received via the input / output unit 14. If an instruction to end data processing has been received (YES in step S9), the emission management unit 121 ends this data processing. If an instruction to end data processing has not been received (NO in step S9), the emission management unit 121 returns to step S1 and continues calculating and tallying the CO2 emissions for each business operator terminal device 2. With this data processing, the emission amount aggregation device 1 can calculate and tally CO2 emissions based on the accounting data in each business operator terminal device 2, while providing the tallying results of the CO2 emissions to each business operator terminal device 2. The calculation of CO2 emissions for each business operator terminal device 2 is automatically performed based on the accounting data, and the calculation results also reflect the audit results of the accounting data, allowing each business operator to easily obtain highly reliable CO2 emission data. Although detailed explanations are omitted here, each business operator can execute emission trading based on the CO2 emissions obtained from the emission amount aggregation device 1.

[0044] <User Interface of Operator Terminal Device 2> Next, a description will be given of a user interface provided in the business operator terminal device 2 of this embodiment that executes the above-mentioned data processing. Fig. 10 shows a display screen 27 that is a user interface provided in the business operator terminal device 2. The display screen 27 shown in Fig. 10 is typically a display screen of a personal computer or the like that is set to function as the business operator terminal device 2, but is not limited to this.

[0045] The example display screen in Fig. 10 includes a monthly CO2 emission display section 271, an emission trading operation section 272, and a cancel button 273. Note that the display, operation, and other items and their layout on the screen are not limited to those in the example in Fig. 10.

[0046] The monthly CO2 emission display unit 271 displays the latest monthly CO2 emissions reported to the business operator terminal device 2 by the emissions tabulation device 1. In the example of FIG. 10, CO2 emissions are displayed aggregated by accounting item, for example. Emissions can be displayed in various formats, such as by more detailed expense item or by graphing the trend of monthly aggregated values. The emissions trading operation unit 272 displays the sellable CO2 emissions and purchase price based on the CO2 emissions tabulated by the emissions tabulation device 1, and provides an input field for the CO2 emissions desired to be sold. By entering the sellable amount in the input field and pressing the sell button, the business operator terminal device 2 can easily complete the procedure for selling CO2 emissions. The sellable emissions can be calculated and presented as the difference between the calculated and tabulated CO2 emissions and the emission allowances by, for example, having the emissions tabulation device 1 track the emission allowances for each business operator. Conversely, if the actual emissions exceed the emission allowances, the amount of emissions that need to be purchased can be calculated and presented to the business operator.

[0047] A cancel button 273 is provided for executing a process to cancel the display and operation on this screen.

[0048] The display screen of such business operator terminal device 2 allows each business operator to quantitatively grasp the amount of CO2 emissions and their trends. Furthermore, based on the calculated and aggregated amount of emissions, emissions trading can be easily carried out.

[0049] The display screen 27 of the business operator terminal device 2 shown in FIG. 10 is an example, and the displayed items, operation items and their arrangement can be changed as appropriate without being restricted by these.

[0050] The emission amount calculation device 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention described above allows for simple and reliable calculation of CO2 emissions based on accounting data recorded by each business. For items in the accounting data that are unclear for calculating emissions, the emissions are calculated by referring to the records linked to those items, thereby increasing the reliability of the calculated emissions.

[0051] As the record relating to the account item or expense item determined to be unclear, documentary evidence data such as invoices, receipts, and settlement statements created for the account item or expense item can be used.

[0052] In this way, it is possible to calculate the CO2 emissions with high reliability based on the quantities and the like contained in the supporting document data.

[0053] The emissions calculation device can be configured to obtain the results of an accounting audit conducted on the business operator, verify the account items or expense items obtained from the business operator based on the audit results, and if the verification determines that the account items or expense items need to be corrected, calculate CO2 emissions based on the corrections.

[0054] In this way, the reliability of the calculated CO2 emissions can be guaranteed based on an accounting audit.

[0055] The above-described series of processes can be executed by hardware or software. In other words, the functional configurations of Figures 2 and 3 are merely examples and are not particularly limited. In other words, it is sufficient that the emission amount calculation device 1 and the business operator terminal device 2 are provided with the function to execute the above-described series of processes as a whole, and the type of functional block used to realize this function is not particularly limited to the examples of Figures 2 and 3. Furthermore, one functional block may be configured as a single piece of hardware or as a single piece of software.

[0056] When a series of processes is executed by software, the programs that make up the software are installed into a computer or the like from a network or a recording medium. The computer may be a computer built into dedicated hardware. Alternatively, the computer may be a computer that can execute various functions by installing various programs, such as a general-purpose personal computer.

[0057] In this specification, the steps of describing a program to be recorded on a recording medium include not only processes that are performed chronologically in accordance with the order, but also processes that are not necessarily performed chronologically but are performed in parallel or individually.

[0058] Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described above, these embodiments are merely illustrative and do not limit the technical scope of the present invention. The present invention can take various other embodiments, and it is also possible to combine the configurations of the above embodiments and modifications. Furthermore, various modifications such as omissions and substitutions can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. These embodiments and modifications thereof are included within the scope and spirit of the invention described in this specification, etc., and are included in the invention described in the claims and their equivalents. [Explanation of symbols]

[0059] S Emissions Counting System 1. Emissions calculation device 2. Operator terminal equipment 121,221 Emissions Management Department 122 Emissions Verification Department 123 Emissions Trading Department 131 Business emissions storage unit 132 Emissions Trading Memory Unit 133, 233 Business information storage unit 134 Emissions calculation data storage unit 222 Emissions Trading Request Section 231 Accounting Data Storage Unit 232 Emissions data storage unit

Claims

1. Acquire accounting data generated about a business that participates in greenhouse gas emissions trading from the business; a processing unit that determines whether there are any account items or expense items included in the accounting data that are unclear from the perspective of calculating greenhouse gas emissions, and if it determines that there are any unclear account items or expense items, obtains records related to the relevant account items or expense items from the business operator, and calculates the greenhouse gas emissions corresponding to each account item or expense item based on the records; Emissions tallying device.

2. 2. The emission amount totalizing device according to claim 1, wherein the record relating to the account item or expense item determined to be unclear is supporting document data created for the account item or expense item.

3. The processing unit obtains the results of an accounting audit conducted on the business operator, verifies the account items or expense items obtained from the business operator based on the results of the accounting audit, and if it determines that corrections are necessary for the account items or expense items based on the verification, ２ The emission amount totaling device according to claim 1 or 2, which calculates an emission amount.

4. The information processing device Acquire accounting data generated about a business that participates in greenhouse gas emissions trading from the business; Determine whether there are any unclear account items or expense items included in the accounting data from the perspective of calculating greenhouse gas emissions, and if it is determined that there are unclear account items or expense items, obtain records related to the relevant account items or expense items from the business operator and calculate the greenhouse gas emissions corresponding to each account item or expense item based on the records. Emissions calculation method.

5. In the information processing device, obtaining accounting data generated about a business entity participating in greenhouse gas emissions trading from the business entity; a process of determining whether there are any unclear account items or expense items included in the accounting data from the perspective of calculating greenhouse gas emissions, and if it is determined that there are unclear account items or expense items, obtaining records related to the relevant account items or expense items from the business operator and calculating the greenhouse gas emissions corresponding to each account item or expense item based on the records; A program that executes the following.

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