The role of government in promoting and implementing environmental management accounting: The case of Bangladesh

This paper aims at describing the roles of government in promoting and implementing environmental management accounting (EMA) in the light of the benefits in developing countries in general and in Bangladesh in particular. The promotion and implementation of EMA can gear up its benefits such as increase in fund, improve environmental performance, contribution to sustainable development, effective decision-making, increase market share, develop environment-friendly industrial sector, etc. Nowadays, external reporting aspect of EMA has created the awareness of the government to play its due role in promoting and implementing EMA. The government can play a role in promoting and implementing EMA through a variety of measures: formulating a policy package regarding EMA promotion and implementation, developing guidelines for the companies regarding the process of EMA reporting and for the government agencies regarding implementation of EMA etc. for example. There are available policy options encouraging companies to practice EMA. These are information policy instruments; self-regulatory policy instruments, incentive base policy instruments, and direct regulatory policy instruments. The government can also formulate policy options at different levels as on a hierarchical basis for the implementation of EMA. The regulatory agencies of the government at various levels like the security exchange commission, financial institutions including banks, stock markets and insurance companies can also play a vital role in implementing EMA by being very strict in assessing the impacts before various financial and non-financial support is provided to the enterprises. Finally based on the available literature, the mentioned government practices of EMA; a suitable model for easy promotion and implementation of EMA in the developing countries is suggested. This paper will benefit a number of parties including the government of developing countries as to how EMA can be implemented. The researchers in this field can use the study as a reference material or as a source of further research ideas generation. The study will also benefit the academicians, practitioners and the professionals in the field of environmental accounting in general and EMA in particular.