The theory and practice of environmental management accounting (EMA) have emerged in recent decades as
a response to the growth of environmental problems. EMA can be defined as the identification, collection, estimation, analysis, internal reporting, and use of materials and information relating to energy flow and environmental
and other costs for both conventional and environmental decisionmaking
within an organization. It is now a widely used tool in balancing the
interaction between the economic, social and technological factors in the development
process to achieve the conditions for sustainable environment. The rapid
growth in the number of companies that are awarded ISO 14001 certificates has
enhanced the development of EMA all over the world. Many governments are
involved in promoting EMA. In China, the government and companies are doing
their best to keep pace with the global trend of environmental protection. The
main problems of EMA relate to the specification of environmental accounting
information, the allocation of environmental costs, legislation issues and the lack
of environmental accounting standards. Among all the available policy instruments
governments could use, the paper argues that regulatory or market-sensitive
instruments would be more suitable for China. It is also possible for the
Chinese government to direct companies in establishing environmental reporting
and environmental auditing systems.