Nowadays, greater awareness is needed for the survival of our planet. We have become greedy and don’t take care of our natural resources. If things are going out of hand, then there is a need to have green accounting in place so that you can make the correct decisions which will help you know why you are doing what you are doing - and not waste money on something that is not helpful or beneficial.
Ever wondered what is green accounting? What are the benefits of green accounting? Or what's the procedure of green accounting? There is a major importance of green accounts in today's era and everyone should be aware of its concepts. How it is prepared and how positive it is for the accounting family. Learn these and more in this article, however, let's first start with defining what is green accounting. Also, we will have insight into SNA (Statement of National Account) and how you can prepare a green account.
Did you know that Green Accounting Concept is a brand-new approach to sustainable accounting? It enables the calculation of a nation's income while accounting for economic harm and resource utilisation and deterioration in the foundation of an economical infrastructure.
What’s the Green Accounting Definition?
Green Accounting may be defined as a gauge of the maximum level of revenue that may be maintained without eroding the non-renewable resources provided by mother nature. In order to account for this SNA (Statement of National Account) or a system that maintains national accounts must be modified. When computing Net Domestic Product in SNA, capital that has been consumed or capital that is manufactured by humans is taken into account. GDP minus depreciation equals Net Domestic Product.
Importance of Green Accounting
In addition to taking into account the price of prevention of environmental degradation, calculating the deterioration of finite natural resources is also important. As a result, calculating Green NDP aka EDP was switched to measuring national products so that it accounts for the financial cost of depleting the natural resources needed to generate commodities and services.
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Net Domestic Product as Defined by SNA:
As per SNA,Net domestic product defined as-
‘Net domestic product(NDP) is obtained by deducting the consumption of fixed capital from gross domestic product.’
NDP is calculated as follows:
NDP = Net exports (X – M) + Final consumption (C) + Net capital accumulation (I).
If net capital accumulation (I) is changed to net capital accumulation of produced and non-produced economic assets minus net accumulation of non-produced natural assets, the identity is then transformed to Green NDP (Or EDP).
EDP = (X-M) + С + NAp. ec + (NAnp.ec-NAnp.n).
Where,
EDP = Environmental domestic product.
(X-M) = Exports-imports
C = Capital accumulation
Nap.ec = Net accumulation of produced economic assets.
NAnp.ec = Net accumulation of non-produced economic assets
NAnp.n = Net accumulation of non-produced natural assets.
SEEA or Green Accounting Preparation:
Let’s understand the concept through a Green Accounting example. The points ahead display the SEEA’s fundamental structure and Green Accounting as well, in a matrix. Additionally, it describes the process of how the aggregates of the SNA are derived in columns and rows from one to four.
Below is a description of each calculation explained above.
- Production side, including output, transitional consumption, CFC, NDP and use of naturally occurring assets in production.
- Imports deducted from Exports or (X-M) are included in the ROW account which is also known as the rest of the world account.
- C translates into Final Consumption which does not get counted as economic assets in the stock of natural assets, such as air, water, and pristine forests.
- Produced assets are a component of economical assets that are an outcome of the processes. This comprises both intangible and actual fixed assets, like those used in mining exploration. Gross capital creation encompasses the generated assets’ volume as well as the net accumulation of those assets.
- The assets which are non-financial and have arisen through processes other than production are referred to as non-produced economic assets. The non-produced assets that are tangible and are mentioned here include things like subsoil and land. Assets that cannot be physically generated, like transferable contracts, patents, leases, etc. are referred to as Intangible non-produced assets.
- The effects on natural resources which are non-produced by any economic activity, such as air, water, and virgin forests, which are not counted as assets of the economy in the collection of natural resources, are recorded in column six.
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The Reasoning behind the Table's Rows
The Explanation of the Rows of the Table lists the starting collection of produced assets, which includes the value of stocks of manufactured capital as well as stocks of natural resources like oil, gas, and managed forests, among other things.
- It lists the value of imports as well as overall domestic production.
- Financial and economic activities, such as exports, final consumer spending, and gross capital formation.
- CFC refers to the fixed capital that is consumed and is another negative indicator in row four. Net Investment (I) is therefore equal to Gross Investment (Ig) - CFC.
- The components that define national income accounts identity between NDP and expenditure categories are represented by NDP.
Net Domestic Product (NDP) is calculated as net exports (X-M) Final consumer spending (C) Net capital accumulation or Investment (I)
- It contains the components for the usage of non-produced natural resources through the deterioration of non-economic natural resources and the depletion of economic natural resources.
- It has to do with the buildup of non-produced natural assets, such as changes in the collection of economic assets and decreases in natural assets pertaining to the environment.
- It has to do with monetary environmental accounting's environmentally adjusted aggregates. These macroeconomic aggregates for EDP are equal to Net exports (X—M) Final consumption (C) Net Accumulation of produced economic assets (NAp.ec) NAnp.ec - and NAnp.n.
What are some of Green Accounting’s objectives?
The various objectives included in green accounting are as follows:
1. All traditional accounts' flows and stocks which are related to the environment are separated and elaborated:
The assessment of the entire cost for environmental protection is made possible by the separation of all environmental flows and asset stocks. There is a gross domestic product and identifying the portion that represents the costs required to offset the negative effects of economic expansion, or expenditures which may be defensive, is another goal of this segmentation.
2. Linking Monetary Environmental Accounts with Physical Resource Accounts:
Even if natural resources are unaffected by the economic system, physical resource accounts take into consideration the overall stock or reserves and changes within. As a result, the physical equivalent of the monetary stock and flow is provided by natural resource accounts.
3. Evaluation of Environmental Benefits and Costs:
In terms of cost, the SEEA expands and complements the SNA:
(a) The consumption and eventual depletion of natural resources;
(b) The alterations in environmental quality brought on by pollution and other production, consumption, and natural disaster-related effects, on the one hand, and environmental protection, on the other.
4. Accounting for Tangible Asset Maintenance:
The SEEA broadens the definition of capital to include both natural and man-made assets. Accordingly, capital formation is transformed into a more inclusive concept of capital accumulation that allows for the use or consumption of an environmental asset
5. Development and Measurement of Environmentally Adjusted Product and Income Indicators:
Taking into account the costs of resource depletion and alterations to the quality of the environment allows for the calculation of modified macroeconomic aggregates, particularly an environmentally adjusted net domestic product (EDP).
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Issues with Green Accounting
The SEEA technique of computing Green NDP is plagued by a number of issues, which are discussed below:
- Because regional natural resource accounts are not reflected in the SEEA's main accounts, the SEEA does not provide complete natural resource accounting.
- It ignores the flows and transformations that occur within natural resources and instead concentrates on how they are used for commercial purposes.
- The essential format for the sorts of data required for SEEA is not accessible. Thus, a major issue in the SEEA has been a lack of data.
- The SEEA lacks a straightforward, reasonable valuation method, unlike the SNA, which uses market values. Different valuation issues are employed for various environmental issues, such as prevention and restoration costs and contingent assessments based on surveys. The majority of the structures in SEEA are illogical and speculative.
Advantages of Green Accounting Over the Traditional Accounting System:
Pollution prevention costs are not completely accounted for in traditional national income accounting. Environmental impact assessments and pollution prevention costs are taken into account in green accounting.
The depletion of natural resources and environmental degradation are not quantified by conventional national income accounting. Environmental quality changes and the expenses associated with resource depletion are taken into account in green accounting.
Moreover, different types of resource expenditure are not completely reported by conventional national income accounting:
Consumption of environmental commodities, such as the use of finite resources, and incompatible uses of environmental services, such as the use of the atmosphere by both producers and consumers as a production input.
However, when it comes to cost, the traditional system of national accounts is expanded and complemented by green accounting:
(a) The use of natural resources (depletion) in final demand and production; and
(b) The alterations in environmental quality brought on by pollution and other production, consumption, and natural disaster-related effects.
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SNA has Three Primary Flaws:
- It ignores the loss of natural resources including agriculture, forests, fish stocks, minerals, etc.
- Environmental degradation, primarily caused by pollution
- Defensive costs incurred by society in defending against environmental degradation's external impacts.
The UN's Statistical Division has created the SEEA to address these shortcomings of SNA.
Conclusion
Environmental accounting and reporting techniques are still in their infancy. Strict regulations should be in place to guarantee that environmental standards are being followed. The main environmental criteria that Indian corporations report as part of their environmental reporting process were the focus of this study. Development of accounting in this area is rather shaky unless the common people of India are not made aware of environmental safety.
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