5.2 Financial accounting and the accounting profession In 1992, the European Union (EU) released a document entitled Towards Sustainability as part of its Fifth Action Programme. One of the suggestions of the Programme was for the accounting profession to take a role in implementing costing systems that internalise many environmental costs which were previously ignored. Traditional financial accounting typically ignores social and environmental costs and benefits because of issues associated with such things as control. Specifically, the EU called for a redefinition of accounting concepts, rules, conventions and methodology so as to ensure that the consumption and use of environmental resources are accounted for as part of the full cost of production and reflected in market prices. 78 The rationale for the EU’s proposal was that if prices reflected the full costs of production, including environmental costs, then such costs would flow through the various production and consumption cycles and, as a result of the higher costs, there would be an inclination towards more sustainable consumption patterns. 流畅一点,绝不要在线翻译。