Green Accounting in India: Linking GDP, CO₂ Emissions and Natural Capital

Abstract Green accounting extends conventional national and corporate accounting by incorporating environmental resources, ecosystem services, natural-resource depletion and environmental impacts into economic measurement. This paper examines the relevance of green accounting in India using secondary statistical data for 2016–2024. The analysis combines economic output, carbon emissions and forest-area indicators and demonstrates how environmental information can complement conventional GDP-based assessment. Pearson correlation and simple linear regression are used to test whether a statistically significant relationship exists between India's GDP and CO₂ emissions. The analysis finds a strong positive statistical association (r = 0.960, p < 0.001) over the selected period. The regression model reports R² = 0.921, indicating that approximately 92.1% of the variation in annual CO₂ emissions in this small time-series sample is statistically associated with variation in nominal GDP. The result should not be interpreted as proof of causality. The paper argues that green accounting is useful because GDP alone does not show depletion of natural capital or environmental costs. India has been developing environmental-economic accounts under the SEEA framework, including ecosystem and ocean-accounting work. The study concludes with implications for policy, business reporting, budgeting and sustainable development.