Revision
System of Environmental
and Economic Accounts
(SEEA)
OECD-NAWP
3-5 October 2007
Mark de Haan
Chair London Group
United Nations Committee of Experts on
Environmental-Economic Accounting (UNCEEA)
Main goals:
• Elevate SEEA to international statistical standard
• Advance the implementation of the SEEA
London Group on Environmental Accounting
• responsible for a large part of the SEEA revision
research agenda
• report their findings to the UNCEEA
New Structure of the SEEA:
Part I: Statistical Standard
- Physical flow accounts
- Asset accounts
- Environmental expenditure accounts
Part II: “Non-standardised” accounts
- Valuation of environmental degadation
- (Ecosystem services accounts)
Part III: Applications and policy uses
Research agenda - Part I
23 research issues have been identified.
The most substantial ones are:
• Material Flow Accounts
• Energy accounts
• Recording of natural resource depletion and
depletion adjusted NA balancing items
• Classification issues: physical flows,
environmental assets
Material Flow Accounting
• Resource productivity
• Manuals OECD & Eurostat
• Close linkage to physical supply-use and
input-output tables
• Research issues
→ Boundary issues (national economy,
agriculture)
→ Terminology
(→ Indicators)
Energy accounts
• Sustainability
• Linkage to air emissions (global warming)
• Oslo group on energy statistics
• Boundary issues: territory versus resident principle
and the use of bridge tables
• Renewable energy sources
• Terminology
Asset accounts and natural resource
depletion
• Showing resource dependencies
• Natural resource depletion (also for renewable
resources)
• Implications SNA93Rev1: ownership,
decommissioning costs, permits to access natural
resources
• Specific resources: soil, fish, forests, ecosystems
(services)
Governance SEEA revision
• Issue papers discussed in the LG and other groups
• Outcome papers reported back to UNCEEA
• Worldwide review of UNCEEA recommendations
• Drafting of chapters
• Worldwide review of chapters
• Adoption of the revised SEEA by the Statistical
Commission in 2012
• Decision pending on whether Part I can be brought
to the Statistical Commission for approval earlier
Time table review of issues
Finalisation at this moment not yet settled
(Research agenda Part II is not yet determined)
It is expected that the revision issues of Part I will be
solved early 2009, taking three London Group
meetings.
Next LG meeting: 17-19 December 2007, Istat,
Rome.
More information on the SEEA revision can be found
at the following website:
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/envaccounting/