Environmental Accounting – A New Challenge for the Accounting System

Abstract

The appearance of environmental problems impacts every area of science globally, as a result, accounting has to answer these challenges as well, one way of which is environmental accounting. The main aim of the study is explore the roots and the tendencies of the development of environmental accounting. In addition, environmental accounting will also be discussed in terms of its relevance to supplementing the traditional accounting system, which topic will be concluded with an outlook on Hungary in this regard. The study – due to its nature – relies on processing and interpreting relevant professional literature. The importance of the study lies in the fact, according to my information, that this is the first analytical study of this sort in Hungarian professional literature. The roots of environmental accounting go back to the system of social accounting, where it has now developed into a sub-system that can supplement the traditional accounting system. In Hungary regulation is rather underdeveloped in the field of environmental accounting; at the same time, its use should not be disregarded for any organisation.