Developments in Accounting for Environmental Expenditure

In order to build a sustainable economic society with a low environmental impact, the private sector and the general government must identify and implement active or voluntary tools capable of influencing the carrying out of the socio-economic activities as to ensure their sustainability. Highlighting the economic phenomena and manner of operation of their in economics is achieved by high synthesis indicators produced by national accounting. Responding to these demands, the UN Statistics Division, together with Eurostat and national statistical offices have initiated a diversification of statistical tools for creating of the indicators which extend the statistics beyond the GDP .An explicit requirement to address environmental economic accounts at European level is expressed by the European statistical program developed and monitored by Eurostat. Within this legal framework program was created to collect data on environmental accounts by Regulation no. 691 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2011 on European environmental economic accounts and updated by Regulation no. 538/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 2014.In this category of accounts includes environmental expenditure account (EPEA), focusing, in particular, highlighting what is and how environmental activities are carried out.This article presents experimental estimates of environmental protection expenditure in Romania from 2008 to 2011.In the first part of the article presents several conceptual issues of satellite account of environmental expenditures, respective: objectives and options that responds account of environmental expenditures, classification of environmental activities and classification of the units engaged in these activities. It also shows the EPEA model for Romania. In the second part of the article presents several examples of applications the EPEA at European and national level.