Within the Accounting harmonization process, different international organizations intervene, in an effort to contribute to the construction of normative parameters; that seek to regulate the economic activities of nations, for this reason the United Nations organization UN through ISAR-UNCTAD, intervenes within the social, educational, business, environmental sectors, among others, with the purpose of publicizing the degree of affectation, of these aspects within the globalization that has been developing, and the harmonization with other regulatory members of the accounting aspect.
Financial accounting and environmental reporting of companies
The objective of financial statements is to provide information on the financial situation of a company; This information is used by a wide range of users to make decisions and is necessary for the management of the company to be responsible for the resources entrusted to it.
The environment is an important resource for many companies and its management must be efficient for the benefit of both the entity and society.
In addition, the need to account for the costs and environmental obligations of issues associated with environmental accounting have become increasingly important for companies (whether private companies, non-profit organizations or public companies, such as municipal entities and state-owned companies) as environmental pollution has become an increasingly serious economic, social and political problem around the world.
At the national and international level, measures are taken to protect the environment, reduce, avoid and mitigate the effects of pollution.
Consequently, companies are currently expected, or even required, to disclose information on their environmental policies, objectives and programs, as well as on the expenses they incur to implement them; They are also expected, or required, to disclose information on environmental risks and to take action on them.
Since the late 1980s, "The Intergovernmental Group of Experts on International Accounting Standards and Reporting" ISAR, has devoted great attention to issues related to Environmental Accounting, for this reason it is in charge of making a provisional exposition of guidelines on The most appropriate method for financial accounting and the provision of environmental reports, taking into account the above, the following is exposed:
Environmental costs should be capitalized if they are related, directly or indirectly, to future economic benefits for the company resulting from:
- An increase in the capacity or improvement of the safety or efficiency of other company assets A reduction or prevention of environmental contamination that is likely to occur as a result of future operations Conservation of the environment is also considered appropriate capitalization when environmental costs respond to safety or other environmental reasons, or when they have the effect of reducing or avoiding possible pollution or helping to conserve the environment for the future.
“Various methods have been proposed for calculating liabilities relating to the costs of future site restoration or decommissioning and disposal operations, as well as to address other cases where it is expected that considerable time will elapse before the corresponding expenses are incurred. to the settlement of the Liability.
These methods include the following:
- The Present Value method The Present Cost method The forecast of anticipated expenses throughout the course of related operations.
The first two methods require the estimated cost of restoration operations for decommissioning or disposal sites to be determined in the current fiscal year, taking into account current legal conditions and requirements.
“Current cost estimate”, the estimated amount is recorded as an environmental liability; On the other hand, if the present value method is chosen, the calculation of the Environmental Liability will be based on the present value of the future cash expenses necessary to satisfy the obligations. The public submission of environmental reports by companies is a phenomenon of 1990.
As environmental legislation tightens almost everywhere, stakeholders in the financial sector are beginning to demand higher levels of environmental data, which they use for several purposes: To reduce the Company's own risk; to interpret the ability of company managers to deal with environmental issues and integrate them into overall long-term strategic issues: and to compare progress between Company and long term ”.
Comparability and relevance of existing indicators on corporate social responsibility.
The regulations issued by UNCTAD present an overview of the main current initiatives and regulations on indicators of corporate social responsibility (CSR); the main issues raised by the examination of their comparability and relevance are outlined.
The question of whether the comparability and relevance of these indicators could be improved is analyzed by focusing on a limited number of key common indicators, ie "core indicators".
The report also explores the scope of reporting on Social Responsibility and its potential users, as well as the possible criteria that could be applied to select the core indicators.
These criteria are intended to support the comparability and relevance of the indicators, and include the following: Materiality, universality, verifiability, and confidentiality.
ISAR (The Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Accounting and Reporting Standards) has identified CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) reporting as one of the emerging issues in the field of corporate transparency.
In addition, ISAR concluded that, even as pressures for better reporting on social issues were increasing and companies were producing more information, stakeholder satisfaction with the quality of data remained low. reports on social responsibility. On the other hand, concern was expressed that the lack of comparability of these reports resulted in them being less useful to stakeholders directly.
It was also noted that lack of satisfaction with social responsibility reporting was placing an increasing burden on companies as they tried to meet the increasing demands of various stakeholders.
In addition, the Intergovernmental Working Group agreed to "begin to review existing indicators so that CSR reports are comparable and do not impose undue burdens on companies in developing countries."
It was also agreed that the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises be duly taken into account.
One of the difficulties of social responsibility reporting appears to lie in the absence of a universally accepted reporting framework for sustainability reporting in general and social responsibility reporting in particular.
“Regarding financial reporting, the International Accounting Standards Board IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) has developed such a framework; it contains the concepts on which the preparation and presentation of financial statements for general purposes of external users is based, that is, statements whose purpose is to satisfy the common information needs of a wide range of users who use them as their main source ”.
Conclusions.
It is important to recognize within the United Nations treaty that globalization has been taking place in the different fields that intervene in the economic and financial situation of the world; Taking into account that each Nation in relation to its needs should adopt the regulations that are beneficial for the development and growth of its markets.
Organizations and their large and small economic groups have become accustomed to making their financial reports from the accounting and fiscal perspective of what their activities represent within the economic atmosphere, without contextualizing, the social and environmental sense that today deserves a high degree of observance and compliance within business work, a concern that for organizations such as the UN, due to its magnanimous role, makes a large scale important and careful to such approaches.
TD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Distr. General TD / B / COM.2 / ISAR / 2 (Dec 3, 1997) Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Accounting Standards and Reporting Fifteenth session
Geneva, February 11-13, 1998 Item 3 of the provisional agenda Financial accounting and environmental reporting by companies
TD / B / COM.2 / ISAR / 24 3 UNCTAD (27-29) OCT 2004 Item 3 of the provisional agenda Review of comparability. Comparability and relevance of existing indicators on social responsibility.
TD / B / COM.2 / ISAR / 198 August 2003 Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Accounting Standards and Reporting Twentieth session Geneva, September 29 to October 1, 2003 Item 3 of the provisional agenda
