Environmental Accounting and Reporting: Theory, Law and Empirical Evidence

The last two decades have witnessed an increasing global concern for the harmful long-term impact of industrial activities on the environment and, subsequently, on the financial performance of a company and the economic growth of a country. This has led to a growing demand from various stakeholders for the measurement of a company's environmental activities and impacts, and subsequent public disclosure of this information. As a result, a new area of accounting has emerged: environmental accounting. Environmental accounting at the corporate level deals with the identification, measurement, recognition, and disclosure of environmental costs, liabilities, and contingencies in the financial records of a company for the benefit of various internal and external stakeholders. This book provides a broad introduction, covering environmental accounting, environmental reporting, and environmental auditing, as these are interrelated and form a very important part of a company's comprehensive environmental management system. The book also assesses the need for a separate regulatory framework to specifically address these issues.