UM ESTUDO SOBRE O NÍVEL DE ADERÊNCIA DE COMPANHIAS DO SEGMENTO QUÍMICO E PETROQUÍMICO ÀS NORMAS E RECOMENDAÇÕES DE DISCLOSURE AMBIENTAL INTERNACIONAIS, NORTE AMERICANAS E BRASILEIRAS

Abstract

In view of the growing worldwide interest and awareness of the fact that government organizations and authorities should have an important role in fostering sustainable development, various disclosure standards and recommendations are being issued. Some international agencies involved in the field of accountancy, such as the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR/UNCTAD) have given attention to the accountancy information concerning environmental sustainability. Likewise, some United States and Brazilian organisms have issued standards pertaining to the accountancy entries and publication of environmental reports in annual company reports. This exploratory-descriptive study, operating in this context, seeks to evaluate the compliance of a sampling of ten (10) companies in the chemical and petrochemical sector that issue American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), and are quoted on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and operate in Brazil, to the standards and recommendations of national and international agencies concerning environmental disclosure. To achieve that purpose the company documentation is surveyed and a qualitative analysis is carried out on the companies published reports. The results of the studies show that compliance with international recommendations is lower than 50%, and on the average it is about 70% as to U.S. standards and low concerning the recommendations of Brazilian agencies, less than 20%.