System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA)System of Environmental-Economic Accounting 2012: Central Framework – final, official publication 2012, UN, EC, IMF, OECD and World Ban
"System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting"
United Nations, European Commission, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and World Bank 2012, 378 pp. is a framework to compile

statistics Statistics (from German: ''Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, indust ...

linking environmental statistics to

economic statistics Economic statistics is a topic in applied statistics and applied economics that concerns the collection, processing, compilation, dissemination, and analysis of economic data. It is closely related to business statistics and econometrics. It i ...

. SEEA is described as a satellite system to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

System of National Accounts The System of National Accounts (often abbreviated as SNA; formerly the United Nations System of National Accounts or UNSNA) is an international standard system of national accounts, the first international standard being published in 1953. Handbo ...

(SNA).EC, IMF, OECD, UN & World Ban
"System of National Accounts 2008"
European Commission, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations and World Bank, New York, Dec. 2009, 1993, lvi + 662 pp. This means that the definitions, guidelines and practical approaches of the SNA are applied to the SEEA. This system enables environmental statistics to be compared to economic statistics as the system boundaries are the same after some processing of the input statistics. By analysing statistics on the economy and the environment at the same time it is possible to show different patterns of sustainability for production and consumption. It can also show the economic consequences of maintaining a certain environmental standard.

Scope

The SEEA is a satellite system of the SNA that consists of several sets of accounts. In broad terms, the area can be described as enabling any user of statistics to compare

environmental issues Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on ...

to general economics, knowing that the comparisons are based on the same entities, for example,

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...

levels caused by a producing industry can be linked to the specific economics of that industry. The different areas of SEEA can be briefly described as follows:

Flows of materials and energy

By this is meant flows of materials and energy through the economy, e.g.,

fuels A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...

natural resources Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. ...

and chemicals, together with their emissions, may it be air emissions,

water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Wate ...

waste Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste prod ...

to which these flows give rise. Data on emissions, above all to the air, have been published for many countries, in particular, European countries following SEEA. The main difference between traditional emissions statistics and emissions in environmental accounts are related to the system boundaries. For example, the inventories produced for the reporting of air emissions to the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established an international environmental treaty to combat "dangerous human interference with the climate system", in part by stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the ...

(UNFCCC) are based on the geographic borders of a country while the air emission accounts following SEEA use the boundary of a specific economy (this is the "residence principle" of the national accounts). This difference is mainly shown in transport emissions as all emissions caused by an economy are included in SEEA. For example,

emissions Emission may refer to: Chemical products * Emission of air pollutants, notably: **Flue gas, gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue ** Exhaust gas, flue gas generated by fuel combustion ** Emission of greenhouse gases, which absorb and emit rad ...

from

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...

ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguishe ...

s or

airplane An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad s ...

s are allocated to their country of origin, even if the emissions occur outside of the borders of this country. Moreover, in the UNFCCC inventories, "transport" is a specific sector of its own and it is not possible to know the share of households and of different industries in the transport emissions. Other statistics that have been developed with relation to flows of material are economy-wide material flow accounts and still being developed are energy flow- and water flow accounts.

Environmental economic statistics

Economic variables that are already included in the national accounts but are of obvious environmental interest, such as investments and expenditure in the area of

environmental protection Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair dam ...

, environment-related taxes and subsidies, and environmental classification of activities and the employment associated with them, etc. In principle, environmental taxes and environmental protection expenditures can be regarded as two sides of the same coin. Both entail costs involved in production processes that are related to the exploitation of the environment in different ways. On the one hand, environmental protection expenditures record spending on measures aimed at improving the environment, while on the other hand, taxes record the costs set by a government for the exploitation of the environment. Thus, in the total cost of production, the environmental taxes paid can be added to expenditure on environmental protection.

Stocks of natural resources

Natural resources in the sense that the accounts should make it possible to describe stocks and changes in stocks of selected finite or

renewable resource A renewable resource, also known as a flow resource, is a natural resource which will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of ti ...

s. These accounts deal with questions related to the monetary valuation of this

natural capital Natural capital is the world's stock of natural resources, which includes geology, soils, air, water and all living organisms. Some natural capital assets provide people with free goods and services, often called ecosystem services. All of t ...

, the physical quantities and qualitative aspects that do not have any market monetary value, e.g., the value of outdoor recreation and

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') ...

. Such accounts may be compiled for sub-

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former ...

assets (e.g.,

oil and gas A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ...

resources), biological resources (e.g.,

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s, fish stocks), land and

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

Ecosystem accounts

The SEEA Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) is a statistical framework that provides a coherent accounting approach to the measurement of ecosystems. Ecosystem accounts enable the presentation of data and indicators of ecosystem extent, ecosystem condition, and ecosystem services in both physical and monetary terms in a spatially explicit way. The

United Nations Statistical Commission The United Nations Statistical Commission (StatCom) is a Functional Commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, established in 1947. The Statistical Commission oversees the work of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). I ...

adopted the SEEA EA standard at its 52nd session in March 2021. Following its adoption, the Statistics Division of the

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) is part of the United Nations Secretariat and is responsible for the follow-up to major United Nations Summits and Conferences, as well as services to the United Nations Econ ...

(UN DESA) in collaboration with the

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on t ...

(UNEP) and the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) released the ARIES for SEEA Explorer in April 2021, an

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

-powered tool based on the Artificial Intelligence for Environment and Sustainability (ARIES) platform for rapid, standardized and customizable natural capital accounting. The ARIES for SEEA Explorer was made available on the UN Global Platform in order to accelerate SEEA’s implementation worldwide.

History

In the statistical sphere the development of SEEA was begun in the early 1990s. As with the development of the national accounts, the experts involved came from large international organisations, national statistical offices, researchers from universities and consultants. Experts in economics, environmental issues and statistics have developed the SEEA to a point were statistics can be compiled, analysed and published. In 2012 the

adopted the SEEA as a statistical standard.Documents for the forty-third session of the Statistical Commission New York, 28 February to 2 March 2012, UN

The concept of

sustainable development Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...

encouraged the development of integrated environmental and economic accounts. The first interim version of the System of Environmental and Economic Accounting was made available in 1993 by the United Nations.Handbook of National Accounting System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting 1993, UN
" System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting"
United Nations, 1993, 198 pp. According to Joy E. Hecht, PhD, the 1993 handbook did not receive the approval of the

"...because it did not represent a consensus report but was offered to UN members as a basis for discussion and experimental implementation".National environmental accounting: bridging the gap between ecology and economy, 2005, JOY E. HECHT, PhD
" National environmental accounting: bridging the gap between ecology and economy"
Resources for the future, 256 pp. The United Nations Statistical Division carried on working with SEEA through the establishment of a city group called the London Group in 1994 (as the first meeting was held in London). The London Group is still active and is an informal group consisting of experts primarily from national statistical agencies but also international organisations and researchers from universities. In March 2005 the United Nations Statistical Commission established the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (UNCEEA).Environmental-economic accounting Report of the Secretary-General, UN
" Environmental-economic accounting Report of the Secretary-General"
Statistical Commission Thirty-sixth session 1–4 March 2005 Item 6 (a) of the provisional agenda Natural resource and environment statistics: environmental accounting, 6 pp. This group consists of national statistical offices,

Eurostat Eurostat ('European Statistical Office'; DG ESTAT) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statistical information t ...

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glob ...

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate ...

European Environment Agency The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) which provides independent information on the environment. Definition The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) which provides i ...

, several UN divisions such as the

United Nations Statistics Division The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), formerly the United Nations Statistical Office, serves under the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) as the central mechanism within the Secretariat of the United Nations t ...

, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia,

United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, known as ECLAC, UNECLAC or in Spanish and Portuguese CEPAL, is a United Nations regional commission to encourage economic cooperation. ECLAC includes 46 member States (2 ...

, and

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inter ...

depending on the agenda and availability. The meeting participants are to be directors or similar in rank. This group has e.g. as their purpose to: # to mainstream environmental-economic accounting and related statistics # to advance the implementation of the SEEA in countries. Another city group has also worked with SEEA. The so-called Nairobi Group was established in 1995 by the

. Environmental Accounting, OECD STD/NA(97)23
/ref> The group was to advance international work in the fields of environmental and natural resource accounting and consisted of experts from developing and developed countries, international organisations and non-governmental organisations. With the release of the operational manual on SEEA in 2000 the work of the Nairobi Group has stopped.
Handbook of National Accounting Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting An Operational Manual, United Nations, 2000, New York European progress in the field has been driven by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

and national statistical offices. In 1994, the European Commission issued a communication for the establishment of green national accounting
Directions for the EU on Environmental indicators and Greened National Accounting – Integration of Environmental and Economic Information Systems COM (94) 670 based on satellites to the System of National Accounts. Eurostat, and the European Statistical Offices used this as a basis for the development and implementation of the different topics and modules described in the SEEA 1993. In more recent years, in June 2006, the

European Council The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body that defines the overall political direction and priorities of the European Union. It is composed of the heads of state or government of the EU member states, the President of the Eu ...

adopted "an ambitious and comprehensive renewed EU Strategy for Sustainable Development". It was then stated that: "For better understanding of interlinkages between the three dimensions of SD ustainable Development the core system of national income accounting could be extended by inter alia integrating

stock and flow Economics, business, accounting, and related fields often distinguish between quantities that are stocks and those that are flows. These differ in their units of measurement. A ''stock'' is measured at one specific time, and represents a quantity ...

concepts and non-market work and be further elaborated by satellite accounts, e.g., environmental expenditures, material flows and taking into consideration international best practices."
Review of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS)− Renewed Strategy, 10917/06 p. 29) The strategy has since then been revised (in 2009) but the topic remains on the agenda in Europe.
Mainstreaming sustainable development into EU policies:2009 Review of the European Union Strategy for Sustainable Development, COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONSCOM(2009) 400 final p. 16) The high level conference "Beyond GDP" in November 2007 at which Commissioner Dimas concluded that "we he European Commissionwill also need to speed up and improve the development of integrated accounting in the social and environmental spheres" increased the interest for SEEA. The idea of Beyond GDP is to increase the use of indicators related to environment and social aspects in relation to indicators such as the

gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is oft ...

(GDP) "...to address global challenges such as climate change, poverty,

resource depletion Resource depletion is the consumption of a resource faster than it can be replenished. Natural resources are commonly divided between renewable resources and non-renewable resources (see also mineral resource classification). Use of either o ...

and health" (Beyond GDP web-site). In 2009 the European Commission issued a communication ''GDP and Beyond: Measuring Progress in a Changing World''
GDP and beyond Measuring progress in a changing world, COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT COM(2009) 433 final pp. 11) describing the need to complement

economic indicator An economic indicator is a statistic about an economic activity. Economic indicators allow analysis of economic performance and predictions of future performance. One application of economic indicators is the study of business cycles. Economic in ...

s such as the GDP with social and environmental indicators. According to this communication, the European Commission plans to extend the existing data collection further, ready for policy analysis by 2013.

Implementation

Within the European Statistical System (ESS) as well as in other countries, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand the further development of SEEA and the implementation of the framework has led to a focus on compiling statistics related to flows of materials (air emission, energy use, waste flows and water flows) rather than analysing stocks of natural resources. One reason is that information from the parts of SEEA related to flows of materials have been in more demand from the user community. Another reason is that it has been possible to develop harmonised approaches on which sound statistical practises could be implemented in relation to environmental economic statistics. (The ESS "...is the partnership between the Community statistical authority, which is the Commission (Eurostat), and the national statistical institutes (NSIs) and other national authorities responsible in each Member State for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics."
Article 5(2) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics (OJ L 87, 31.3.2009, p. 164)) European statistical offices and Eurostat are following a European Strategy for Environmental Accounts.Revised European Strategy for Environmental Accounting, 68TH MEETING OF THE STATISTICAL PROGRAMME COMMITTEE 2008, CPS 2008/68/7/EN
" Revised European Strategy for Environmental Accounting"
Luxembourg, 13 November 2008. As part of the strategy, a legal base was proposed for the collection of data on Environmental Accounts.Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on European environmental economic accounts, Brussels, 9.4.2010 COM(2010)132 final 2010/0073 (COD)
" Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on European environmental economic accounts"
Brussels. The legal base was passed in 2011 and extended in 2014 Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2011 on European environmental economic accounts, Official Journal of the European Union L 192 Volume 54 22 July 2011
"Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2011 on European environmental economic accounts"
Official Journal of the European Union, EUR-LEX, L 192 Volume 54 22 July 2011. The legal base contain six modules that countries within the European Economic Area needs to conform to. These modules are air emission accounts, environmental taxes by industry, economy-wide material flow accounts, environmental protection expenditure accounts, environmental goods and services sector, and physical energy flow accounts.

References

External links

United Nations dedicated website to the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting

Eurostat's dedicated section to Environmental Accounts and environmental statistics

United Nations city group: London Group

United Nations Committee of Experts on Environmental – Economic Accounting

Eurostat home web-site

OECD and EEA database on instruments used for environmental policy and natural resources managementStatistics Sweden's dedicated section on Environmental Accounts

Environmental accounting: Information and Data in Austria

NAMEA – hybrid accounts in environmental accounting in Austria
{{DEFAULTSORT:System Of Integrated Environmental And Economic Accounting Environmental statistics Statistical data agreements Official statistics