The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA)

1
The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
(SEEA) A framework for measuring interactions
between the environment and the economy

• Rob Edwards
• Inter-regional Adviser
• United Nations Statistics Division

2
Outline

• SEEA and the green economy
• The SEEA conceptual framework
• 3. SEEA structure
• General principles
• Assets in SNA and SEEA
• SEEA Volume 1
• SEEA Volume 2
• SEEA Volume 3
• Way forward and process

3
SEEA and the Green Economy

• The economy impacts on the environment and the
  environment impacts on the economy
• To understand these linkages we need to integrate
  environmental and economic information
• SEEA provides a comprehensive conceptual and
  accounting framework that can be used to create a
  database suitable for analysing and evaluating
  the interactions between the economy and the
  environment
• As such, SEEA may provide part of the solution in
  informing on the green economy

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The SEEA Conceptual Framework (1)
Territory of reference
Economy
Instruments -Financial/Monetary -Taxes/subsidies
-Financing -Resource rent -Permits

• Actors
• Enterprises
• Households
• Government
• Non-profit institutions

Activities -Production -Consumption -Accumulation
Analytical and Policy Frameworks -Productivity
analysis -Natural resource management -Climate
change -Green Growth/Green Economy
Outside territory of reference
Outside territory of reference
Land/ Resource use/ Ecosystems
Emissions/waste

Environment
Natural Resources (stocks) -Land -Water -Ecosystem
s -Soil -Etc.
Natural Resource flows -Materials -Energy -Water -
Ecosystem services -Etc.
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Extensions and Applications(Volume 3)
SEEA Structure

• General Principles
• Concepts
• Classifications
• Accounting rules
• Valuation principles (where applicable)

SEEA Volume 1 SEEA Volume 2
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General Principles

• SEEA is an organising framework for an integrated
  system of stocks and flows accounts from which
  policy relevant statistics and indicators can be
  derived that measure interactions between the
  economy and the environment and the quality of
  environmental assets
• The stocks and flows can be measured in both
  physical and monetary terms
• SEEA sets out the underlying concepts,
  definitions, classifications and accounting rules
  that underpin the stocks and flows accounts
• As such, SEEA can provide guidance in the setting
  up of a program of basic environment statistics
  in terms of scope, coverage and underlying
  concepts

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General Principles SEEA as an organizing
framework
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General Principles SEEA accounts and aggregates

• Asset accounts record stocks and changes in
  stocks (flows) of natural resources such as land,
  forest, water and minerals
• Physical flow accounts provide a systematic
  physical description of production and
  consumption processes, including their natural
  resource inputs, product throughputs and outputs
  i.e. wastes. Link the physical information to
  the economic accounts
• Monetary accounts separately identify
  environmentally- related transactions presented
  in the existing SNA flow accounts in order to
  make them more explicit for analysis
• Environmentally-adjusted aggregates combine
  modules of SEEA to form a full-sequence of
  accounts from which aggregates such as
  depletion-adjusted net domestic product and net
  saving can be derived.

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Assets in SNA and SEEA
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SEEA Volume 1 The Central Framework

• Measures in physical terms the flows of goods and
  services of energy, water and materials that
  cross between the economy and the environment and
  circulate within the economy
• Accounts for natural resources and their using up
  by the economy
• It uses standard national accounting concepts and
  classifications and expands on them to better
  measure the relationship between the economy and
  the environment
• The one extension to the SNA is that Volume 1
  provides guidance on how to calculate measures of
  depletion of those natural assets that are within
  the asset boundary of the SNA (e.g. subsoil
  assets)
• As such, national accounts aggregates such as net
  domestic product and net national saving can be
  adjusted for the using up of those natural
  assets in the production process
• SEEA Volume 1 is predicated on established
  statistical standards embodied in the SNA. It
  complements the SNA by elaborating those concepts
  and classifications that better measure the
  relationship between the economy and the
  environment
• The elaborations have been the subject of
  extensive international discussion and a broad
  consensus is emerging that SEEA Volume 1 should
  itself become an international statistical
  standard

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SEEA Volume 1

• Statistics that can be generated from SEEA Volume
  1 include
• National wealth and its composition over time
  (incl. natural capital)
• Depletion adjusted aggregates (e.g. NDP and
  savings)
• Resource productivity indicators
• Decoupling indicators
• Economic instruments for protecting the
  environment and managing natural resources
• Financing
• Input-output analyses

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SEEA Volume 2 Experimental Accounts (1)

• Volume 2 looks at the ecosystems in their
  capacity to provide services to current and
  future generations
• All assets discussed in the central framework as
  individual assets are seen as jointly producing
  services
• The concept of ecosystem services is well known
  in the scientific community, but there is little
  practical experience in measuring the concept
  among official statisticians
• Hence Volume 2 will aim to do no more than
  present the current state of thinking on these
  matters. As such, Volume 2 cannot be regarded as
  a statistical standard
• That said, statisticians may choose to use the
  Volume 2 framework to generate policy-relevant
  datasets, with the qualifications attaching
  thereto.

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SEEA Volume 2

• Statistics that can be generated from SEEA Volume
  2 include
• Provisioning services at the ecosystem level
• Health of the ecosystem in its capacity to
  provide services to current and future generation
  measured in terms of
• Carbon cycle
• Indicator of water stress (at the river basin
  level)
• Biodiversity
• Vegetation (based on land cover data)

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SEEA Volume 3 Extensions and Modifications

• This Volume will describe the uses for, and
  applications of, SEEA-generated datasets
• The Volume may be no more than a website
• As SEEA is applied in practice, it is expected
  that additional materials will be generated

15
Material flows and international trade
Taken from Environmental accounts of the
Netherlands 2009, Statistics Netherlands
16
Solid waste
Taken from Environmental accounts of the
Netherlands 2009, Statistics Netherlands
17
Decoupling analysis
Taken from Environmental accounts of the
Netherlands 2009, Statistics Netherlands
18
Greenhouse gas intensity
Taken from Environmental accounts of the
Netherlands 2009, Statistics Netherlands
19
GHG emissions trade balance
Taken from Environmental accounts of the
Netherlands 2009, Statistics Netherlands
20
Depletion of natural capital
Taken from Environmental accounts of the
Netherlands 2009, Statistics Netherlands
21
Environmental taxes
Taken from Environmental accounts of the
Netherlands 2009, Statistics Netherlands
22
EGSS and Green Jobs
Taken from Environmental accounts of the
Netherlands 2009, Statistics Netherlands
23
Resource efficiency - Mauritius
Source UNCEEA Environmental Accounting Brochure,
prepared by Rocky Harris
23
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Water use accounts - Panama
Figura 1. Pay de distribución de usos consuntivos
Figura 2. Pay de distribución de usos,
incluyendo hidroeléctricas y esclusas
24
Source INEC Panama, taken from mission report by
Ricardo Martinez-Lagunes
25
Environmental expenditures - Colombia
Source DANE
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Way forward

• The adoption of SEEA Volume 1 as an international
  standard will be a critical milestone in
  mainstreaming environmental-economic accounting
• SEEA should be promoted as the measurement and
  monitoring framework from which many statistics
  can be generated that are relevant to the green
  economy policy agenda
• -- with the important qualification that those
  derived using approaches articulated in Volume 2
  cannot be said to have compiled in accordance
  with international standards

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Process

• SEEA Volume 1 will be submitted to the UN
  Statistical Commission for adoption in February
  2012, together with an implementation plan
• --- extensive international consultation on
  draft chapters and the Volume in its entirety
  beforehand
• Volumes 2 and 3 will be submitted to UNSC in
  February 2013