CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1Â Â Â Â Background to the Study
The need for Environmental Accounting has become the concern and focus of nations and responsible corporate managements. It became one of the foremost issues on the agenda of nations and businesses earlier in the 1990s and the reasons for this were varied emanating from both within and outside of the firm and particularly at the global level (Okoye and Ngwakwe:2004:220-235). A lot of government enactments, laws and regulations on environmental protection have been made in several nations of the world and Nigeria is slowly responding..
In the light of the awakening to environment protection, various laws and regulations such as the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, 1992 and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Environmental Guidelines and Standards for the Petroleum Industry in Nigeria (EGASPIN: 2002) were enacted. These require corporate managements to consider the environmental implications of all internal decisions of their managements. Also, all organizations monitored by environmental policy agencies in Nigeria are expected to demonstrate much consideration in decision making.
Environmentalists agree that it could be more cost efficient and beneficial for companies to acquire pollution prevention or clean technology than those of pollution clean-up. It is also observed that in environmental regulations, there is a shift from the ‘command and control’ approach to market-driven forms in which pollution prevention alternatives are replacing pollution cleaning approach. It follows therefore, that determining the appropriate pollution prevention approach may lead to additional decisions to be taken by management.
