Environmental accounting provides data that highlights both the contribution of natural resources to economic well-being and the costs imposed by pollution or their depletion.
By highlighting the importance of accounting as a tool to measure economic phenomena and the usefulness for decision-making of different individuals, environmental accounting takes great relevance to establish the degree of impact of the application of policies and instruments For its regulation and control over the environment, it is therefore necessary to establish the parameters that it can provide all the information that is pertinent, feasible, and relevant for its formation within the global social sphere.
In this sense, an organization that pursues the study of an IUCN Environmental Accounting Initiative seeks to help its members understand how this tool can help them improve environmental management, hence a study on the importance it is taking in the last years around the world.
The first phase of the IUCN Environmental Accounting Initiative is presented below (1)
Environmental accounting
Also called "resource accounting" or "integrated economic and environmental accounting", it refers to the modification of the System of National Accounts to incorporate in it the use or exhaustion of natural resources.
In the English language literature it is found as "Green Accounting", "Ressource Accounting" or "Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounts"
" The System of National Accounts (SNA) is the set of accounts that the governments of each country collect periodically to record the activity of their economies."
The SNA data is used to calculate the main economic indicators including gross domestic product (GDP), gross national product (GNP), savings rates, and figures for the trade balance.
The data that make up these aggregate indicators are also used for a broad range of equally valuable but less well-known policy analyzes and for economic monitoring purposes.
These economic accounts are calculated for all countries using a standard format, which has been developed, supported, and disseminated by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSTAT).
The fact that all the countries carry out these calculations, in more or less the same way, adds great value to the data, for decision-making at the national and international levels, since it enables comparisons and allows each country in the context of global trends.
In the same way, the periodic calculation of these accounts allows us to understand how the world is evolving, and where each country is located within this pattern of change. This provides a valuable basis for defining public policies aimed at guiding countries and the entire world towards desired patterns of growth and development.
This study makes a clear difference between what it is ("a set of aggregated national data linking the environment to the economy, which will have a long-term impact on both economic and environmental policy development"), and what is not ("An assessment of environmental goods, assets, or services, or an analysis of the social cost-benefit of projects that affect the environment, or regionally or locally disaggregated data on the environment), Environmental Accounting.
In the report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, it was established that an integrated ecological and economic accounting system should be adopted, for which it structures a series of Principles for such action:
- 1. A first step towards integrating sustainability into economic management is the most accurate determination of the fundamental role of the environment as a source of natural capital and as a sink for by-products generated by the production of capital by man and by others. human activities 2. Since sustainable development has social, economic and ecological dimensions, it is also important that national accounting procedures do not limit themselves to measuring the production of remunerated goods and services in the traditional way. It is necessary to develop a common framework according to which the contributions of all sectors and of all activities of society that are not included in traditional national accounts are included in subsidiary accounts,bearing in mind considerations of theoretical validity and feasibility. 4. The adoption of a program to create integrated ecological and economic accounting systems in all countries is proposed.
The main objective is to expand current national economic accounting systems to accommodate the environmental and social dimensions, including at least subsidiary account systems for natural resources in all Member States.
The resulting integrated ecological and economic accounting systems to be established in all Member States as soon as possible should, in the near future, be seen as a complement to traditional national accounting systems, and not as a mechanism to replace them.
Integrated ecological and economic accounting systems would form an integral part of the national development decision-making process.
National accounting agencies should work closely with national ecological statistics departments, geographic services, and departments dealing with natural resources.
In this way, their contribution could be properly measured and taken into account in the decision-making process.
Finally, with a view to achieving a more integrated approach to the decision-making process, it may be necessary to improve the data systems and analytical methods used in all processes.
Governments, collaborating where appropriate with national and international organizations, should review the status of the planning and management system and, where necessary, modify and strengthen procedures to facilitate integrated review of social, economic and environmental issues. ambient.
