Making sense of climate change in central government annual reports and accounts: A comparative case study between the United Kingdom and Norway
比较英国和挪威中央政府如何在年度报告中理解气候变化，发现挪威将其视为全球问题、强调国际合作，而英国则视为部门问题、侧重国内指南，这影响了各自的问责方式。
Abstract Taking a sensemaking and accountability perspective, this paper explores how the Norwegian and the United Kingdom (UK) central governments understand climate change in the annual reports and accounts and how this shapes its accountability. Using a thematic analysis, we find that the Norwegian central government makes sense of climate change as a global problem requiring coordinated actions with shared responsibility and accountability to international agreements. In contrast, the UK central government understands climate change as a problem for individual departments and accountability to national guidelines. Sensemaking is enabled primarily in the narratives but also visually in the UK central government. Our research contributes to climate‐related and accounting research by illustrating how central government understands climate change. Theoretically, we extend the literature on sensemaking to the public sector and how sensemaking shapes accountability for climate change.