The need to provide accurate financial information through more complete financial statements and developing complementary information.
Today the evolution of accounting requires eliminating the concept of the company as a closed system in order to consider it as an open system that is related, through other types of transactions, with its physical environment since if we do not:
What happens with externalities, that is, with the costs that the company does not internalize and transmit abroad. That it is society that bears the negative costs produced as a whole and not the entity that generates them and that they should be taken into account for the correct calculation of business results.
By assuming the environment as a significant feature of the environment, the accounting entity must be considered as an open system, which internalizes the alterations of the environment, so that the information it provides satisfies the needs of the entire globally understood community, thereby that the concept of entity has to start from the responsibility based on the analysis of the complete life cycle of its products.
THE PROPERTY. A MAJOR QUESTION
The Conceptual Framework establishes that: “The economic framework in which the economic entity operates responds to the social market economy model, which implies:
Private ownership of the means of production, scattered economic decisions, profit motive and limitations on the previous points, derived from the social responsibility of the economic entity.
Production and its factors are points of interest to economic analysis, companies are made up of elements linked to the labor and / or capital factor put at the service of the function of production and distribution of goods and services, from which they will obtain a result. All these elements have been classified as assets of the company, due to the legal ownership bond that binds them to it, their use implies wear and tear and depreciation (loss) that must be taken into account when determining the result.
Until recently the concepts of property ownership and their depreciation have been linked. The approach to the economy as a closed system and therefore the lack of a global vision of the economic system and the company belonging to said system, has prevented the consideration of other types of elements such as water or air, which are not owned by the company. company, are not used exclusively or excluding, but are shared by the general economic system, and therefore prevents contemplate their consumption and possible deterioration.
But yes, we introduce the environment into the economy, we can find other types of property that can be perfectly assigned to natural resources, thus in addition to private property, where the holder of the right is recognized, the power to exclude others members of a community.
THE USERS OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION
A user of financial information is the agent with the right to access the accounting information channel. This right arises when the activities of the informative entity affect or may influence the behavior of the potential user: the state, suppliers, banks, insurance companies, clients, consumers, even competitors, etc.
In our line of reasoning, we can possibly start by asking:
WHAT RIGHT DOES THE COMPANY HAVE TO CLAIM INFORMATION ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF A COMPANY
If the answer is positive, the next step will be to determine the role that accounting information plays in that accountability. Those who defend that companies have to show such information are based on the fact that all natural resources affected by the environmental impact are common property, which means that society as a whole has property rights over said goods and that apart of the income tax or its benefits as it is known. And since THE ENVIRONMENT IS A GOOD FOR EVERYONE, companies neglected by their society and environment, should pay another tax such as socio-environmental deterioration, this tax would be levied at a rate somewhat higher than that of income tax, eg: 65 %,that would be applied on the negative result (Losses) of the Socio-Environmental Balance of the company, with periodic technical-accounting public audits. In such a way that there is a balance with respect to both results, in order to induce companies to take care of the environment and act as a punishment to encourage the reversal of socio-environmental losses. In this case, 2 balance sheets should be drawn up, one strictly Economic traditional financial and other economic socio-environmental financial, and the consolidation of both will show the final result of the organization.In order to induce companies to take care of the environment and act as a punishment to encourage the reversal of socio-environmental losses. In this case, two balance sheets should be drawn up, one strictly Traditional Economic Financial and the other Socio-Environmental Financial Economic, and the Consolidation of both will show the bottom line of the organization.In order to induce companies to take care of the environment and act as a punishment to encourage the reversal of socio-environmental losses. In this case, two balance sheets should be drawn up, one strictly Traditional Economic Financial and the other Socio-Environmental Financial Economic, and the Consolidation of both will show the bottom line of the organization.
The constant change to which accounting is subjected as a social science, which is easily verifiable in the analysis of its historical evolution. This shows that there is no single vision of what an accounting system is, but that there are many of them because they are subject, not to immutable and predictable laws as in an exact science, but as a social science it is subject to constant evolution in depending on its own environment, evolution never finished so the object of accounting or accounting itself as a science is a never settled issue.
We can also verify that in the relationship of the economy with the environment, the latter had been forgotten in the classical study of economics, nor has it entered as such in the study of accounting science since it has not been part of the defining characteristics the economic environment where the accounting system is developed as a specific variable, mainly due to the same problem, the confusion between the concept of value and price, and therefore the monetarization of all goods. The latter is the biggest inconvenience and challenge to be solved to materialize: "The New ESA Accounting." and the Tax on Socio-Environmental Losses.
OR BE THAT….
From what has been said, in addition to the recording and accounting treatment, the following stands out: the need to separate income, expenses and socio-environmental costs from operational ones, assets and the creation of provisions for liabilities for socio-environmental purposes. This panorama gives rise to the creation of "The New ESA Accounting" (Economic Social-Environmental).
Consequently, it can be affirmed that we are facing a field of research, professional and educational activity, with a promising and exciting present and future that will have and facilitate the contribution of accounting as a comprehensive, social science, and of accountants in particular to a development in which all the results of the entity are harmonized: economic, social and environmental, in such a way that the companies show their total results, not only with respect to the economic utility for their owners and owners, but also the integral result of these for society as a whole. In this way, see the economic-socio-environmental viability (ESA) of companies from the point of view of the Company as a whole and of its owners in particular. At the same time establish eg,the aforementioned Tax on Socio-Environmental Losses to decide the social interest on the existence and development of companies.
All these issues, in many cases will have to be part of multidisciplinary and particular studies of accounting, political decisions, legislation of the countries and will be necessary as global action in the fight for the preservation of the planet's environment "Our Casa Grande “, human life and that of other species, and of the importance of acting decisively and urgently in favor of said objective and combating climate change, a phenomenon that constitutes one of the greatest threats to the future of humanity.
