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The solutions and tools generally offered to policymakers on environmental issues – such as carbon pricing and environmental taxation – most often emanate from neoclassical economists. This book shows that the tools of these economists are ineffective for the job and must be replaced by methods from the sphere of ecological accounting.
The work has four main themes: First, the book provides a presentation and criticism of the tools traditionally proposed by neoclassical economists. Adopting a historical perspective, this section shows how these tools have evolved over time and explores some of the theoretical criticisms which have been leveled at them. Second, the book shows how mainstream economists have moved away from more pragmatic and efficient solutions because of their ignorance of the realities of management, in particular, corporate accounting, and their ideologically driven desire to avoid attacking the capitalist model. Third, a toolkit of anti-capitalist ecological accounting is outlined, showcasing the distinct advantages of this approach for the environmental crises. And finally the book considers the concrete possibilities of a rapid application of these new tools to combat the immediate threats we are facing.
The book will interest all readers who want to understand how anti-capitalist ecological accounting can contribute to cooling and saving the planet, in particular readers in ecological economics and accounting.
General introduction
PART I Why are the tools of dominant economists inadequate for ecology
1 Historical presentation of the tools of the dominant economists
2 Theoretical critiques of the tools of dominant economists by other economists
Conclusion of the first
PART II Why accountant's tools are needed to solve ecological problems
3 The birth of modern accounting and its ignorance by most economists
4 The interest of the knowledge of capitalist accounting for an anticapitalist economic revolution
Conclusion of the second
PART III How to use accounting concepts to rebuild an ecological and humanitarian economy
5 The basic principles of new economics and management: the CARE/TDL model
6 Appliance of the CARE/TDL model to microeconomics: the case of green house gases
7 Application of the CARE/TDL method to national accounts
Conclusion of the third
PART IV Is there any hope to see the use of The CARE/TDL Model today?
8 The problems of the diversity of environmental (ecological) accounting systems and green finance
9 The current proposals of the experts of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
Conclusion of the fourth part
General conclusion
Jacques Richard is Emeritus Professor at the University of Paris Dauphine, France. He is also a former chartered accountant and counsellor of trade unions, and former member of the Authority of Accounting Standards (Paris). In 2013 he received the "Best Manuscript Award" from the Academy of Accounting Historians.
