THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING AND PUBLIC AUDITING IN ENSURING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: THE EXPERIENCE OF CHINA

Abstract

Under the context of global sustainable development, this paper investigates the influence mechanism of public auditing on environmental accounting and its role in promoting sustainability. Employing a methodological approach that combines grounded theory coding, case analysis, and international comparison, the study constructs a three-tiered influence mechanism-policy foundation, audit intervention, and governance feedback-based on four representative policy documents in China. This framework elucidates how public auditing enhances the compliance, effectiveness, and information reliability of environmental activities. Furthermore, through an in-depth analysis of ecological and environmental audits in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the proposed mechanism is empirically validated. A comparative analysis with Kazakhstan’s institutional framework highlights the distinctiveness of the Chinese approach, which includes the establishment of medium-term audit planning systems, government-led environmental audits, and the integration of audit results into rectification and performance evaluation systems. These findings offer practical insights for other countries, particularly developing nations, on how to leverage public auditing to influence environmental accounting and advance sustainable development.