Abstract:

The green economy is considered by the United Nations Environment Progamme as one whose growth in income and employment is driven by public and private investments that reduce carbon emissions and pollution, enhance energy and resource efficiency, and prevent the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. This concept considers the natural capital as a critical economic asset and source of public benefits, especially for poor people whose livelihoods and security depend strongly on nature.

As a result, a green economy is considered as one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities, context in which a green economy also can be thought of as one which is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive.

In this context, the concept of green accounting is suitable to be considered in order to measure the natural capital, due to this concept is also known as environmental accounting and seeks to measure sustainability taking into account measures of national welfare, in particular items associated with environmental goods and services. Also, green accounting seeks to incorporate costs and benefits of environmental protection and depletion of natural capital, measurements not typically included in national accounting systems such as gross domestic product.

This research has been done in order to know more about the strategic link between the concept of natural capital, green economy and green accounting, identifying environmental data from important economies using indicators related to natural capital in terms of agriculture, forestry, biodiversity, energy, emission and pollution, and water and sanitation.

This is why within the sources of information used to conduct this research, there have been reviewed the official websites of several agencies that dedicate activities to promote sustainability, among others.

Keywords:

green economy, green accounting, sustainability.