Indicators in the SEEA:
Identifying the main Accounting
Aggregates in SEEA – Volume I
Sjoerd Schenau
Statistics Netherlands
Content
 Conclusions previous LG meetings
 Indicators in the revised SEEA
 Key aggregates: Volume I
1) Physical flow accounts
2) Monetary accounts
3) Asset accounts and depletion
 Questions for the London Group
Conclusions previous meetings
 General consensus that indicators are
important and should be included in the SEEA.
 Aggregates resulting directly from accounting
identities should be presented as part of the
standard (Volume I).
 Indicators are applications of the accounts and
should be discussed in application chapter
(Volume III)
Indicators in the revised SEEA
Volume I: identification of key aggregates that
can be directly derived from the standard tables.
Volume III: general discussion on indicators from
SEEA
• General introduction, policy uses etc.
• Aggregation issues, ratio indicators
• Comparison with international indicator sets
• Indicators derived from economic analyses and
modelling application
Ratio indicators (I)
A) Ratio indicators that can be derived by
combining data from different tables
examples: intensity, productivity, per
capita etc.
Different units !!!!
These kind of ratio indicators are to
be discussed in Volume III
Ratio indicators (II)
B) Ratio indicators that can be directly derived
from the standard tables
Examples: recycling rate of solid waste,
life length of an asset, tax burden on the
use of the environment
Same units !!!  percentage
Proposal: These kind of ratio
indicators are to be discussed in
Volume I
Physical flow accounts
Important subaccounts
• Economy wide MFA
• Energy accounts
• Water accounts
• Residual accounts
Residual accounts
Global scale
Gross emissions by producers + households +
other sources =
reabsorpion by producers + accumulation in
the global environment
Regional scale
Transboundary inflow + gross emissions by
producers, households and other sources =
transboundary outflow + reabsorpion by
producers + accumulation on national territory
Residual accounts
1. Gross emissions (emissions by residents’
2. Net emisions (gross emissions-absorption)
3. Absorption / gross emissions
4. Net accumulation on national territory
5. Net cross outflow by env. media
 Indicators for specific environmental
problems
 Aggregation based on scientific weights may
provide useful indicators.
Monetary accounts
• Most key aggregates are total amounts,
such as total environmental expenditure,
total environmental taxes, etc.
• More interesting indicators are ratio
indicators
Environmental taxes and
subsidies: Key aggregates
1.Total environmental taxes
2.Total environmentally motivated subsidies
Environmental taxes and
subsidies: derived indicators
1. Total environmental taxes / total tax revenues
2. Total environmentally motivated subsidies /
total subsidies
Other monetary accounts
• Environmental expenditure
 Capital expenditure, current
expenditure
• Environmental permits
 stocks, permits purchased, permits
sold, permits surrendered
• Environmental goods and service sector
 Value added, employment, exports
Asset accounts
Opening stock =
changes due to transactions +
additions to stock level
– deductions from stock level
 other changes in stock level =
Closing stock
Asset accounts
1
2
3
4
5
6
Key aggregate
Units
Opening stock
Changes due to transactions
Additions to stock level
Deductions from stock level
Other changes in stock level
Closing stock
kg or monetary
kg or monetary
kg or monetary
kg or monetary
kg or monetary
kg or monetary
Depletion: physical dimension
1
2
3
4
5
6
Renewables
(Natural Growth - Harvest) / Opening Stock
Harvest / Opening Stock
Natural Growth / Harvest
Remaining Stock / Harvest
Natural Growth / Remaining Stock
Remaining Stock / Natural Growth
Non-Renewables
7 Extraction / Opening Stock
8 Remaining Stock / Opening Stock
9 Remaining Stock / Extraction
Physical units, %
Physical units, %
Physical units, %
Physical units, years, %
Physical units, %
Physical units, years, %
Physical units, %
Physical units, %
Physical units, years, %
Depletion: monetary dimension
Valuation of natural resource assets enables
direct wealth comparisons with other asset
types, like produced assets or financial assets.
The current accounts presented in the revised
SEEA Part I should also include the standard
SNA balancing items, net domestic product,
net national income, net disposable income
and net saving corrected, not only for the
consumption of fixed capital but also for
natural resource depletion.
Questions for the London Group
1) Does the London group agree with the proposed
selection and explicit presentation of
accounting aggregates in Volume I with the
goal of identifying the main building blocks of
indicator construction as discussed in Volume III
in the revised SEEA?
2) Does the London group agree that ratio
indicators that can be directly derived from
the standard tables should be mentioned in
Volume I of the revised SEEA ?
3) Does the London group agree with the proposed
list of key aggregates and derived indicators for
physical flows as presented in table 1 and 2 ?
Questions for the London Group
4) Does the London group agree with the proposed
list of key aggregates and derived indicators
for environmental expenditure and other
environmental related transactions as
presented in table 5 and 6 ?
5) Should wealth accounts and accounts for
depletion adjusted national accounts
balancing items be developed in the revised
SEEA as suggested in par’s 38 and 42?
6) Has the London group additional suggestions
for identifying key aggregates that could serve as
building blocks for SEEA indicators?