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1 The System of Environmental- Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) Partnership Meeting The World Bank, Washington DC 29-31 March, 2011

The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Page 1: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

1

The System of Environmental-

Economic Accounting (SEEA)

Alessandra Alfieri

United Nations Statistics Division

Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) Partnership Meeting

The World Bank, Washington DC

29-31 March, 2011

Page 2: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Outline

1. The SEEA

2. The SEEA framework

3. Some examples of applications of

SEEA

4. The SEEA and Ecosystem accounts

5. The development of SEEA and way

forward

Page 3: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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The SEEA

• The impacts of the economy on the environment and the contribution of the environment to the economy

• Integrates environmental and economic information to understand linkages

• Accounting framework brings discipline to the organisation of environmental and related data

• An international standard involves acceptance of the framework, wide application and ultimately improved quality and international comparability of statistics

Page 4: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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The information pyramid

Indicators

Accounts

SEEA

Basic data

Econ. Stats|Env. Stats

Page 5: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Environmental-Economic Accounting and

Environment Statistics

Environment statistics:

Often developed to answer one particular question or problem

Difficult to figure out if all information is included

Not always easy to see the whole picture, or how it relates to other things

Page 6: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Environmental-Economic Accounting and

Environment Statistics

Environmental accounts:

• Help to make sense of the larger picture

• Help to identify pieces that are missing

• Can make connections to other statistics -especially economic statistics

Page 7: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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SEEA and the national accounts

• SEEA is being elevated to a standard in its own right at the par with the system of national accounts

• Where relevant, uses national accounting concepts and classifications

• Extends national accounts asset boundary

• Includes non-market valuations of environmental assets and flows

• Links monetary and physical information

• Enables national accounts to be adjusted for environmental depletion degradation

Page 8: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Territory of reference

Environment

Natural Capital (stocks)

-Land

-Water

-Ecosystems

-Soil

-Etc.

Services & Resource flows

-Materials

-Energy

-Water

-Ecosystem services

-Etc.

Economy

Activities

-Production

-Consumption

-Accumulation

Instruments

-Financial/Monetary

-Taxes/subsidies

-Financing

-Resource rent

-Permits

Actors

-Enterprises

-Households

-Government

-Non-profit institutions

8

The SEEA Framework

Outside

territory of

reference

Outside

territory of

reference

Analytical and Policy

Frameworks

-Productivity analysis

-Natural resource management

-Climate change

-Green Growth/Green Economy

Land/

Resource use/

Ecosystems

Emissions/

waste

Page 9: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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SEEA accounts and aggregates

• Asset accounts: record stocks and changes in stocks (flows) of natural resources such as land, forest, water and minerals

• Physical and hybrid 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 Green GDP, or Net Saving can be derived.

Page 10: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Material flows and international

trade

Taken from: “Environmental accounts of the Netherlands 2009”,

Statistics Netherlands

Page 11: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Sub-national accounts

Taken from: “Environmental accounts of the Netherlands 2009”,

Statistics Netherlands

Page 12: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Environmental taxes

Page 13: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Environmental expenditures -

Colombia

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007pBosques yecosistemas

Recurso hídrico

Suelo, subsuelo yaguas subterráneas

Investigación ydesarrollo ambiental

Administración ygestión ambiental

Gasto del Gobierno en protección

ambiental por finalidad principal

Gasto del Gobierno en

protección ambiental / PIB

(2000-2007p)

0.0%

0.1%

0.2%

0.3%

0.4%

0.5%

0.6%

0.7%

0.8%

0.9%

1.0%

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007p

Fuente: Entidades SINA y Contaduría General de la Nación

Cálculos: DANE Dirección de Síntesis y Cuentas Nacionales - Grupo Cuenta Satélite de Medio Ambiente

Taken from presentation by Óscar Orrego to IAOS Conference, 2010

Page 14: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Resource efficiency - Mauritius

Source: UNCEEA Environmental Accounting Brochure, prepared by Rocky Harris

Page 15: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Netherlands – Decoupling indicator

Page 16: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Water use accounts - Panama

Agricultura

Agua potable

Industrias y serviciosautoabastecidos

Energía eléctrica sinhidroeléctricas

Hidroelectricas

Esclusas

Figura 1. Pay de distribución de usos consuntivos

Figura 2. Pay de distribución de usos, incluyendo hidroeléctricas y esclusas

Source: INEC Panama, taken from mission report by Ricardo Martinez-Lagunes

Page 17: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Water balance in Mexico

Source: CONAGUA Mexico

Page 18: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Central framework – Issues solved• Depletion of natural resources

• Valuation of assets (within SNA asset boundary) – Natural resources

– Land

• Environmental taxes, subsidies, emission permits resource use permits

• Environmental goods and services sector

• Classification of environmental activities

• Links between UNFCCC emission inventories and emission accounts and energy balances and emission accounts

Page 19: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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SEEA Ecosystem Accounts

• Complements SEEA Central framework

• Still experimental

• Covers ecosystem assets and services

provided by ecosystems that benefit

humanity

• Covers changes in ecosystem assets

(degradation) and ecosystems health

Page 20: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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The scope of SEEA: Central framework

and experimental accounts

Data users

ECONOMY ENVIRONMENT

SNA

Flo

ws w

ithin

eco

no

my

Ch

an

ge

s in

sto

cks

Material inputs

Returns

SEEA – Central framework:

A

B

A & B are establishments/enterprises &

households

Natural resources/land

Page 21: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Two approaches in SEEA

Data users

ECONOMY ENVIRONMENT

SNA

Flo

ws w

ithin

eco

no

my

Changes in

sto

cks

Material inputs (provisioning services)

Returns

SEEA Experimental accounts – Ecosystem accounts:

Ecosystem servicesA

B

A & B are establishments/enterprises &

households

X

Y

X & Y are functional units representing

ecosystems

in te

rms o

f ca

pa

city

for

eco

syste

m s

erv

ices

Page 22: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Some principles for ecosystems

accounts

The physical accounts provide information on

• Ecosystem assets (e.g. land cover, carbon, soil,

biodiversity)

• Indices or composite indicators of overall

ecosystem health

• Ecosystem services

• Methods for monetary valuation of degradation

and of ecosystem services based on information

in physical accounts

Page 23: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Ecosystem accounting units –

which units?

• Units of observation are ecosystems determined

in terms of a spatial area integrating information

from satellite observations and statistical data.

• The biophysical characteristic and the relief are

used to define the units (“ecosystems” or land

“functional units”) homogeneous with regard to

the services they provide

• These units can be overlaid with administrative

units

Page 24: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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The development of SEEA

• Three related parts:

– Central framework – Statistical standard

covering the “satellite” of the System of

National Accounts

• 2012

– Experimental accounts – Ecosystem

accounting

• 2013

– Part 3 – Applications

• 2013

Page 25: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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The development of SEEA

• Editor and editorial board

• Work overseen by UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting

• London Group on Environmental Accounting considering technical issues

• World Bank and EEA to play key role in ecosystem accounts

• Bureau of UNCEEA has agreed to general approach and concept for ecosystem accounts – will be discussed in further detail at next UNCEEA meeting in June, 2011

• Extensive consultation with national statistical offices and other key stakeholders

Page 26: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Way forward

• Developing SEEA as an international standard will be a critical milestone in mainstreaming environmental-economic accounting

• Reaffirming the SEEA as the measurement and monitoring framework for sustainable development/green economy– Integration of policy/analytical and measurement frameworks –

Rio +20, etc.

• Development of an implementation plan, including assistance to countries to begin developing accounts

• Completion of the experimental accounts and applications of the framework by the end of 2012

• Development of the implementation plan

Page 27: The System of Environmental- Economic …1 The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Alessandra Alfieri United Nations Statistics Division Wealth Accounting and Valuation

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Thank You !