Environmental financial accounting and reporting at the corporate level

Interim statement of best practice guidance for accounting and reporting for environmental costs and liabilities. It is synthesized from a background paper, "Accounting and reporting for environmental liabilities and costs within the existing financial reporting framework", which reviews positions taken by numerous national standard-setting and other organizations. The purpose of this interim statement of best practice guidance is to provide assistance to enterprises, regulators and standard-setting bodies in determining what is considered best practice in accounting for environmental transactions and events in the financial statements and associated notes. At its 13th session, the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting decided that it was important to create guidelines and/or develop a basic framework for environmental accounting. Without the prompt development of this framework as guidance to member States, the latter would subsequently find themselves in the position of having to reconcile their independent standards and procedures with those of other member States. [author]