Searches on the state of the art in environmental costs are relevant for envisioning the panorama of research on the topic. This study searches the Brazilian and international vision regarding the concept of 'environmental costs' in journals and proceedings, in English and Portuguese, from Jan/2001 to Mar/2013. We expanded the literature review with a summarised analysis, incorporating articles from journals in Latin American countries: Mexico, Chile, and Argentina. Based on the analysis of these articles, we obtained: definitions and classifications of the environmental costs used by the authors, published articles per year, per number of authors, and the most cited authors, among other results. We concluded that in articles in Portuguese there is a tendency to divide the environmental costs from the classification of quality costs, and multiple costing methods were discussed but predominantly the activity–based costing (ABC). In articles from English, we found discussions on the relations between environmental costs, environmental management accounting, and externalities. In articles from Latin America, we identified the tendency to approach the study of environmental costs related to agribusiness. The development of this article contributed to understanding the panorama of scientific research regarding environmental costs, and it showed the importance of studying this subject.