Environmental accounting
applications for Sustainable
Consumption and Production policies
Rocky Harris
Department for Environment, UK
UNCEEA
New York, June 2010
Introduction
Relatively new cross-cutting policy area
Four broad themes
•
Sustainable production and resource efficiency
•
Sustainable consumption and consumer behaviours
•
Sustainable products and sustainable materials
management
•
Government showing leadership through
sustainable operations and procurement
Characterised by life-cycle perspective
Sustainable production: policies targeted
at different industrial sectors
• Introducing regulatory and fiscal measures to reduce
pollution and reduce consumption of natural resources
• Encouraging sector sustainable development strategies
and commitments
• Providing advice to businesses about opportunities for
resource efficiency, energy audits etc
• Developing the environmental goods and services (EGS)
sector
Sustainable production: key data sources
•
•
•
•
•
Physical flows accounts
Data on types of businesses
Business attitudes and behaviours surveys
Environmental expenditures and
environmental taxes
Environmental Goods and Services sector
Sustainable production: applications
• Monitoring and setting targets for the environmental
performance of individual sectors
• Comparing the improvements in resource efficiency claimed
by Government support agencies with actual changes in
efficiency in different sectors
• Understanding drivers of change (structural decomposition
analysis)
• Estimating the incidence on different economic sectors of
proposed new taxes such as the Climate Change levy
• Informing the strategic targeting of the Environment
Agency’s monitoring of the environmental impacts of
different industrial sectors
Moving production abroad accounts for about 30% of our
improvements in production (non-household) CO2 emissions
800
Increase if emissions had risen
in line with consumption levels
700
Dash for gas 23%
Relocation of production 30%
Million tonnes CO2
600
Efficiency improvements 31%
Savings achieved by:
500
Switch to services 16%
400
UK production (nonhousehold) emissions total
300
200
100
0
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Without these savings CO2 emissions would have increased by 43% between 1992 and 2004
Sustainable consumption policies
o
Encouraging behaviour change is about raising awareness
•
•
o
ranges from the introduction of publicity campaigns and
incorporation of discussions within the school curricula
through to the imposition of mandatory metering systems
Supported by policies for example to
•
•
•
restrict the availability of certain less sustainable products
(‘choice editing’)
reduce price differentials between sustainable and less
sustainable products
actions taken to provide recycling facilities and support the
market for recycled goods
Sustainable consumption: key data sources
• Physical flow accounts, particularly if linked with
household spending through the COICOP classification,
can help show the proportion of environmental
impacts that result from different types of household
activities
• Public attitudes surveys, which identify changes in
behaviour which can then be linked with information
on impact of those behaviours
• Other household survey information for example on
travel patterns and food consumption
Key behaviours and impacts
Behaviour goal
Impact (kg/hh pa)
Current take-up
Insulate home
750
70%
Manage energy use
530
58%
Micro-generation
350
<1%
Recycle waste
540
71%
Waste less
600
64%
Reduce water use
140
52%
More efficient cars
780
27%
Travel locally without car
750
29%
1,120 .
28%
140
62%
10
37%
260
6%
Cut short haul flights
Use energy efficient products
Buy local food in season
Adopt better diets
Sustainable products
Numbers of products in the market
PRODUCT INTERVENTIONS – Overall approach
Cut out the
least
sustainable
products
Interventions:
•Minimum
standards
Less
Drive the existing market towards greater
sustainability
Interventions:
•Pricing and trading
•Voluntary initiatives
•Producer responsibility
•Business support
•Procurement
•Labelling
•Public information
PRODUCT SUSTAINABILITY
Encourage
development
of new, more
sustainable
products
Interventions:
• Support
innovation
More
Sustainable products: applications
• EU’s EIPRO study shows that food and drink, transport and housing
products account for 70-80% of impacts
• Accounts are most relevant as sources of information about the
overall context of products policy
• For example, the contribution of electricity use by appliances
covered by integrated products policy with changes in overall
electricity consumption within the home
• Also used for carbon footprinting applications
• Importance of emissions embedded within capital formation
• How emissions from services are spread across a wide supply
chain
• The contribution of technological improvements in products
towards climate change targets
Mapping greenhouse gas emissions and the food chain
UK food chain greenhouse gas emissions
100%
UK production 47%
Net trade 25%
Pre-farm gate
e.g. Fertilisers
UK agriculture
and fisheries
Food
manufacturing
3%
35%
9%
Food exports
-5%
Overseas
production
Food services 5%
30%
Food retail
Catering
2%
3%
Households 14%
Food shopping
3%
Cooking,
storage
11%
Transport 10%
Road freight
within UK
Overseas
transport
4%
6%
Mapping greenhouse gas emissions from water use
Direct
abstractions
Water supply
treatment
1 mtCO2e
15,350mcm
Water
company
admin
0.2mtCO2e
Water
distribution
0.6mtCO2e
3,700mcm
20,800mcm
3,600mcm
Leakage
0.4mtCO2e
Business
8,700mcm
Business
Homes
?mtCO2e
35mtCO2e
Waste water
collection
0.2mtCO2e
Waste water
treatment
2.1mtCO2e
Sludge to land
1-2 mtCO2e
Government showing leadership
Policy activities:
• Government being seen to manage its own operations in a
sustainable manner and meeting its own sustainability targets
• Government using its purchasing power to leverage change
amongst its suppliers and ensuring the sustainability of its
supply chains
Two different approaches
1.
2.
Top down – data from national statistics sources
Bottom-up – data from government organisations
CO2 emissions from UK public sector share of energy used in
production (first order effect, including electricity)
Share of market (%)
Area of bubble indicates amount of carbon
40
Sewerage and
refuse
35
Pharmaceuticals
30
Medical
instruments
25
Health and
social work
20
Construction
15
Land transport
services
10
5
Other business
services
Hotels and
catering
0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Public sector procurement spend (£bn)
35
40
Scottish Government carbon accounting project
Induced emissions from spending
of wages and salaries of public
sector and supply chain
Government
operations
Household
behaviours
Government procurement
Government policies and grants
Business
engagement
Products policy
General conclusions





Environmental accounts data is generally used to provide
broad strategic direction to SCP policies
Strong suite of applications as far as resource efficiency is
concerned
Less useful for sustainable consumption policies as more
disaggregated data is needed
Usually not sufficiently detailed for products policy, but
some useful applications for carbon footprinting
On-going requirement to reconcile top-down and
bottom-up data sources
Structure of booklet





Background to SCP
Framework of SCP policies, objectives and levers
Detailed consideration of policy workstreams where
accounts have provided or could provide relevant
information
General discussion of strengths and areas where further
development could improve usefulness
Annexes setting out which accounts are relevant – in
practice and theory – to which policy areas, and core sets
of indicators
Next steps





Follow up with UNEP
Review of material from ETC, OECD, UN DESA and other
Incorporation of examples from other countries into the
general structure
Well-structured draft for wider comment in early Oct 2010
Completion of draft booklet for discussion by LG October
2010 and WGEIO November 2010
Points for discussion





The process for development of a glossy booklet on SCP
applications
The general structure, style and content of such a booklet
The coverage of the booklet in terms of non-standard
accounts e.g. SFA
The development of a core set of indicators which can be
derived from the accounts and could be included as an
annex
The overlap between SCP applications and climate
change applications, and the implications for potential
booklets on other policy themes
Decisions, decisions


Does the UNCEEA agree that a glossy booklet of 30
to 50 pages on applications of the SEEA from the
SCP policy perspective is a useful showcase for the
SEEA?
Does the UNCEEA agree the proposed approach to
the development of such a booklet?