From: Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM
Date: Thu Nov 18 2004 - 19:08:57 EST
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jurriaan Bendien" <andromeda246@hetnet.nl> Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 5:55 PM Subject: Environmental Protection Expenditure Accounts in Japan OPE-L readers might be interested in the development of environmental accounts in Japanese national accounting system, which are described on this page: http://www5.cao.go.jp/2000/g/0620g-kankyou/0620g-kankyou-e.html . These accounts aim to provide a monetary valuation of environmental costs. Often such indicators have been criticized because non-renewable resources cannot have a replacement cost, and because many environmental costs cannot, or not directly, be expressed in monetary terms insofar as they refer to the quality of life. Still, the inclusion of basic environmental accounts in social accounting must be regarded as progressive I think. The site states: "One of the biggest problems revealed by the trial estimation is that basic data to create environmental/economic statistics are insufficient even when focusing on a specific environmental domain. The collection, maintenance and disclosure of basic data by relevant parties are required to utilize the economic analysis in environmental/economic policies." Particularly if "the polluter pays" principle is adopted, the topic of pollutants by enterprises and households may becomes a very political issue, and it may be that in some areas it is difficult to obtain reliable data, because institutional entities fear that, if the information becomes known, that they would be charged or taxed more. Statistics Canada also provides a discussion paper on environmental accounting: http://www4.statcan.ca/citygrp/london/venues/london_papers1.pdf Jurriaan
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