Post on 30-Dec-2015
description
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
The UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) and its
implementation in pilot countries
Ivo HavingaUnited Nations Statistics Division
havinga@un.org
Rio Conventions Pavilion Event: Transformative Initiatives in Biodiversity
Mainstreaming and Financing
16 October 2014
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Policy Demand: International Context Agenda 21
Rio+20 outcome document
High-Level Panel Report on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
SDGs monitoring
European legislation
Aichi targets
Natural Capital Accounting
International initiatives• OECD’s Green Growth Strategy, WAVES, VANTAGE, UNEP-led Green
Economy programme, CBD, TEEB
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Integrated multi-dimensional statistics Demand for Integrated
statistics which allow coherent understanding for integrated policy
Requires accounting approach and integrated statistical production process
Ensure quality of information and consistency between basic data, accounts and tables and indicators
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Integrated multi-dimensional statistics
Transforming sectoral data into integrated policy-relevant information
Interrelations between economy, environment and society through systems approach – SNA and SEEA
Communication and visualization of the story the statistics tell
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
SEEA: Enabler for the transformative agenda
SEEA - Central Framework
SEEA -Experimental Ecosystem Accounting
Enable integration of biophysical data, monitoring changes in ecosystem and linking those changes to economic and human activity
Inform post 2015 development agenda and SDGs
SNA
Enable partnership at international, regional, sub-regional and national level.
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
SEEA Conceptual Framework
Activities-Production
-Consumption-Accumulation
Instruments -Financial/Monetary -Taxes/subsidies - Financing -Resource rent -Permits
Economic Units-Enterprises-Households-Government
-Non-profit institutions
Individual Environmental Assets (e.g., land, water, mineral and energy, soil, aquatic)
Ecosystem Assets
Natural inputs
Analytical and Policy Frameworks
-Productivity analysis-Natural resource management
-Climate change-Green Growth/Green Economy
-Post-2015 Development Agenda
Residuals (e.g., emissions,
waste)
Economy
EnvironmentTerritory of reference
Outside territory of reference
Outside territory of reference
Imports/Exports
Transboundary Environmental Flows
Ecosystem services
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
SEEA Central Framework Internationally agreed
statistical framework to measure environment and its interactions with economy
Adopted as international statistical standard by UN Statistical Commission in 2012
Developed through inter-governmental process
Published by UN, EU, FAO, IMF, OECD, WB
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
The SEEA Central Framework Accounts1. Flow accounts: supply and use tables for products, natural inputs and
residuals (e.g. waste, wastewater) generated by economic activities. • physical (e.g. m2 of water) and/or monetary values (e.g. permits to
access water, cost of wastewater treatment, etc.)
2. Stock accounts for environmental assets: natural resources and land• physical (e.g. fish stocks and changes in stocks) and/or monetary
values (e.g. value of natural capital, depletion)
3. Activity / purpose accounts that explicitly identify environmental transactions already existing in the SNA. • e.g. Environmental Protection Expenditure (EPE) accounts,
environmental taxes and subsidies
4. Combined physical and monetary accounts that bring together physical and monetary information for derivation indicators, including depletion adjusted aggregates
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting
Complements SEEA Central Framework
Integrated statistical framework for accounting for ecosystem assets and associated ecosystem services
Important first step in development of statistical framework for ecosystem accounting
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Individual & societal well-being
BenefitsSNA & non-SNA
Ecosystem services
ECOSYSTEM ASSET
Ecosystem characteristics Intra-ecosystem flows Inter-ecosystem flows
Human inputs (e.g. labour, produced assets)
Ecosystem processes
Linking ecosystem assets and well-being through ecosystem services
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Relationship to SEEA Central Framework
Extends range of flows related to regulatory and cultural services (production boundary) for accounting compared to SNA and SEEA CF in physical and monetary terms
Many flows from Central Framework also included in Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (e.g. flows of timber), but extension of EEA is to attribute flows to spatial areas
Some Central Framework natural input flows are excluded from Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (e.g. mineral and energy resources)
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Approach for developing SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
The SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting brings in two new dimensions:1.Spatial characteristics expressed in spatial units2.Integrated or holistic view of multiple characteristics for each unit
The EEA is focused on living (renewable) natural resources
• Land • Water • Carbon • Biodiversity • Nutrients• Pollution• Human activities• Ecosystem services
Minimum dataset schemeUnifying themes
Image source: http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/La-Mi/Land-Use-Planning.html
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Measurement units for social, economic and environmental parameters remain untouched
New accounting and reporting units created for ecosystem accounting purposes
Spatial data perspective: harmonizing reporting units
Overlay of units (UK)
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Land account
Wat
er a
ccou
ntCarbon
SEEA-EEA integration framework
BiodiversityBiodiversity Nutrients
Nutrients
Integration of ecosystem services in macroeconomic aggregates, like GDP and NDP
Raw data collection, processing and harmonization
Consistent physical and monetary asset accounts
Land cover/use Accounting unitsAdministrative reg., habitats, ecoregions
Forest Crops
Statistics
Vegetation
Wat
er
Supply
/use
catch
met
s
Ecosystem services in monetary and physical terms
AmenityRisks
Food,Climateregulation
Clean
drinkin
g
water
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Hierarchical (nested-grid) aggregation
18
Ecosystem Accounting Unit
(EAU)
Land Cover/Ecosystem
Functional Unit (LCEU)
Basic Spatial Unit (BSU)
Country
State
Region
Statistical Areas
Parcel
Grid cell (e.g. 20m x 20m or 100m x 100m)
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
GeographyBuilding analytical capability for units and ensure that GIS
standards are maintained
Accounting e.g. unified and
hierarchical classifications and variables for units
(grid)
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Asset accounts on carbon:
Statistical data on:1.Forest biomass (FRA, 2000, 2005, 2010)2.Crops harvest (EUROSTAT 2000 – 2010)3.Timber harvest (EUROSTAT 2000 – 2010)4.Livestock (EUROSTAT 2000 – 2010)
Remote sensing products:1.Land cover (CORINE LC 2000, 2006)2.Vegetation (SPOT vegetation NDVI 1999 – 2010)3.Primary production (GPP) and Ecosystem respiration (TER), (NASA, 2000 – 2010)
Modelled data:1. Soil organic carbon (Global map, JRC (Hiederer and Köchy, 2012)
TERGPP
ExportsImports
Source: European Environment Agency and ETC-SIA
Theme unifying a number of components, processes and data sets:
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Net ecosystem production = Gross Primary Production – Terrestrial Ecosystem Respiration
Balance of lateral imports and exports= Carbon returns – carbon ‘uses’
The two basic balancing items are designed to summarize ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ carbon transfers
European carbon accounts
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Examples: Net ecosystem carbon balance
• On country level the ecosystem carbon accounts should be consistent with IPCC’s in assessing whether ecosystems acted as net source or sink of CO2 for a given period of time.
• The maps shows a decade average, with areas in green indicating prevailing sink (most of Europe) and in red – prevailing source functions (e.g. parts of North West Europe, Po valley in Italy, and spots of forest-burned areas of Portugal).
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Advancing SEEA- Experimental Ecosystem Accounting in pilot countries
List of pilot countries (7 countries) Non-exhaustive list of potential associate country pilots
Countries Africa: South Africa, Mauritius Asia: Indonesia, Vietnam, Bhutan Latin America: Mexico, Chile
* Australia* Canada* Ecuador* Netherlands* Norway* Peru (project managed by
Conservation International* Philippines (through WAVES)* Colombia (through WAVES)* United Kingdom* United States
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Project activities – Advancing SEEA-EEA
Norwegian funded and joint collaboration between UNSD-UNEP- CBD
Country missions Regional workshops: will gather and exchange experiences from
the country pilots and other initiatives Forum of experts: contacts of people involved in ecosystem
accounting at national level and other (related) initiatives Knowledge base: will include data and materials generated in the
course of guidelines development and country missions Research agenda: addressing challenging issues (for ex.
mainstreamed classification of ecosystem services) Guidance and training material Global strategy for SEEA EEA
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Management and governance
Recognize multi-agency requirements and harnessing existing knowledge
Technical committee under the auspices of the UNCEEA responsible for:
▫ Coordinate and advance the research agenda on the basis of lessons learnt from testing with the objective of developing best practices and in the longer term mainstreaming
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Short term priorities Spatial units
• Scaling and aggregation methods
Methods for measuring ecosystem services and assets• Classification of services and link to ecosystem condition
Presentation and accounting structure• Dissemination, including visualisations
Linking to socio-economic data• Integration of scales
Valuation of ecosystem services
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Medium to long term priorities Accounting concepts
• Degradation – valuation and allocation• Integration of ecosystem values into standard accounts and balance sheets
(links to wealth a/c)• Treatment of expenditures on ecosystems
Connections between ecosystem services and ecosystem condition• Often seen as competing approaches• SEEA EEA sees clear links but they are complex and non-linear
Aggregation and ecosystem-wide indicators• Most challenging aspect: needs to build and combine all other research and
testing work
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
Building on existing initiatives
SEEA and WAVES• WAVES uses as entry point the Ministries of Planning
or Ministries of Finance – focus on institutional arrangements and policy applications
• SEEA – UNSD uses the NSOs as entry points and has as objective to assist countries in developing an integrated statistical system to support the implementation of the SEEA
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
SEEA and TEEB
TEEB focuses on answer specific policy questions in specific geographical areas
Objective is to raise awareness of the issues through using valuation
Broad ranges of types of projects Working with SEEA with UNSD taking the lead
in supporting countries in the SEEA implementation in the countries of the project
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
SEEA and BIOFIN
BIOFIN has the objective of bringing together different stakeholders and make an assessment of the financing for biodiversity (e.g. financial gaps, etc.)
Developing a taxonomy on biodiversity expenditures, taxes, subsidies
SEEA – UNSD is working with BIOFIN to align the taxonomy with the standard classifications of environmental activities
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
SEEA CF Accounts
Ecosystem Accounts
Accounts for environmental activities and transaction
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
SEEA and CBD
Aichi Target 2 is about mainstreaming biodiversity into national accounts
SEEA has been recognized as the statistical framework for measuring and monitoring ecosystems and biodiversity into an accounting approach
CBD partner in the project
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
SEEA and Green economy initiatives
OECD recognized the SEEA as the statistical framework for green growth indicators
SEEA informs many of the green economy policies
SEEA working in Mauritius with PAGE (Programe of Action for Green Economy)
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
National and international communities must join hands in advancing the work!