Environmental Accounting: Environmental Economic Accounts and their role in Audits on Biodiversity and other Environmental and Sustainability Topics

This report aims to provide background and strengthen auditors' technical capacities, so that environmental accounting is included in audits of administrative actions in the environmental area. The report is aimed at professionals from the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU-Brazil) and from sub-national courts, as well as from other members of the Latin American and Caribbean Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (OLACEFS). The report discusses the main concepts and methodologies associated with environmental accounting, assesses the progress of the issue in the countries of the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region, and presents how environmental accounting can be used in the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of public policies. Case studies of how Environmental Economic Accounts have been developed in practice in Latin America are also presented. This report discusses the uses of the accounts in the context of audits on biodiversity and other environmental and sustainability topics.