4. THE ADDED VALUE AND LIMITS OF
ACCOUNTING
Environmental accounts are tools that offers a good
cost-performance report for the following reasons:
- they enable integration and optimal use of
dispersed and incomplete primary data and also
contributes to the existing data structure,
improve coherence and serve as a basis for
evaluation;
- are integrated into the data set that correlates
environment information with economic agents;
- allow obtaining consistent sets of correlated
indicators;
- represents consequently an essential basis for
analysis and modeling concerning environment
and economy;
- guarantees international comparability of results
because of the frames, concepts and common
methods;
- play a role in the Systemic informational
environment in which accounting staff can help
guide and develop environmental information to
ensure greater consistency with economic and
social information and other uses.
There are considered different types of analysis
concerning environmental accounts. A minimum of
analytical applications is useful in the process of
compiling and disseminating imputation emissions,
through some techniques that involve inputs and outputs.
Other applications are related to decomposition analyses
and estimates on goods and services
5. LIMITATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL
ACCOUNTING
Environmental Accounting suffers from various
and serious limitations as it follows:
• There is no standard accounting method.
• Comparison between two firms or countries is
not possible if method of accounting is different
which is quite obvious.
• Input for EA is not easily available because
costs and benefits relevant to the environment
are not easily measurable.
• Many business and the Government
organizations, even the large and well managed
ones, don't adequately track the use of energy
and material or the cost of inefficient materials
use, waste management and related issue. Many
organisations, therefore, significantly
• underestimate the cost of a poor environment
performance to their organization.
• It mainly considers the cost internal to the
company and excludes cost to society.