Australian Perspective:
EGSS Developments and
Application Issues
Peter Williams
Assistant Director, Centre of Environment Statistics
(P) +61 (0)2 6252 5758 (E) peter.r.williams@abs.gov.au
Measuring Progress on the "Greening" of the Economy: Policies and Practices,
Geneva, 14-15 May 2014
Technical workshop jointly organised by UNEP, Eurostat, EEA and ILO
Outline of Presentation
Developments
• Overview of environmental- economical
accounts the ABS produce.
• EGSS related outputs.
Application Issues
• Challenges relating to EGSS outputs.
• Future directions.
ABS EnvironmentalEconomic Accounts
• Organises
information
• Stocks and flows
• Physical and
monetary
measures
• Benefit and
beneficiaries
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/envaccountin
g/seeaRev/SEEA_CF_Final_en.pdf
Account type
NATIONAL BALANCE SHEET
-land
-minerals
-energy
-timber
-fish
FISH
ENERGY
MINERALS
Year First
published
Frequency or
status
1995
Annual from
1995
2012
Experimental
1999
Occasional
Reference Years for which accounts are available
Stock accounts
Flow accounts
Physical
Monetary
Physical
Monetary
1988-89 to
2011-12
1988-89 to 201112
2000-01, 2005-06
to 2009-10
1996-97
1996-97
1993-94 1996-97;
2004-05;
2006-07;
2008-09 to
2010-11;
1996
Annual from
2011
1988-89 to
2011-12
1998
Occasional
1985 to 1996
1988-89 to
2011-12
1992-93,
1993-94
WATER
LAND COVER AND LAND
USE VALUES (BY STATE)*
WASTE
GHG EMISSIONS EMBEDDED IN FINAL
DEMAND
1993-94 1996-97;
2000-01;
2004-05;
2008-09 to
2010-11;
2003-04;
2004-05;
2008-09 to
2011-12
2013
2013
2009-10
2000
Annual from
2010
2011
Annual from
2011
2012
Annual from
2012
2009-10
2012
Experimental
2008-09;
2009-10
2011; 2012;
2013
2004-05
2009-10;
2012; 2013
* Land cover and use accounts are prepared for each state on a rotating schedule, with each state covered once in three years.
Australian
Environmental-Economic Accounts
2014
• Brings together existing
accounts into an annual
publication
• Water, energy, waste,
environmental assets,
CO2 emissions, taxes,
and land cover
• Time series
• Tables and indicators
• Present accounts with
minimal analysis and
interpretation
• Special article
EGSS Related Outputs
Current
• Water Accounts
• Energy Accounts
• Waste Accounts
Future
• Environment protection expenditure and
resource management.
• Renewable Energy Employment
(Component of Green Jobs)
Water and Energy Accounts
• Considerable policy interest and concern (within Australia).
• Presents information on the supply and use of water
(MJ)/energy (PJ) in the entire Australian economy in both
physical and monetary terms.
• Good example of integrating physical and monetary
volumes within the economy. e.g. price paid per ML of
water or measuring resource productivity.
Challenges
• Accounts don’t have a good measure on capturing
investment technology or expenditure on service.
• Don’t value monetary component of renewable energy.
• Potential to add EPE/EGSS in the future.
Waste Accounts
• Waste Account- presents generation of
waste, the destination of waste to landfills
or to recycling facilities, and the supply of
recycled materials to the economy,
including the related financial flows.
• Parts of accounts belong within both EP
and RM domains.
Information Paper (June 2014)- Environment protection
expenditure and resource management
•
Based on SEEA and the European System for the Collection of
Economic Information on the Environment (SERIEE) frameworks.
•
Considering local (Australian) concerns and data availability, the
following Environmental Expenditure categories will be presented:
–
–
–
–
–
–
•
Waste water management
Solid waste management
Air and climate protection
Water management
Research and development
Other resource management
Resource intensive exercise:
– no systematic data source
– required large amount of data scavenging (e.g. budget papers, annual
reports)
Renewable Energy Employment
• Externally funded project.
PROJECT
• Phase 1
– Concepts study (internal paper due July 2014)
• Defining jobs
• Defining Industry or activity
• Defining supply chain concordance with SEEA CF
• Phase 2
– Build renewable jobs statistics (due Nov 2014)
• Create frame
• Use administrative data (income tax) for number of paid
jobs by selected categories (location, type of producer,
etc)
Renewable Energy Employment
• Discoveries so far
– Industry classification and primary activities has some
information
– Research and Development classification
– Imports and export classifications (goods importers and
exporters)
• Challenges
– Translating “primary purpose” and “producers” (SEEA)
to supply chain (user request)
– Occupation classification not well established for green
jobs
EGSS Application Issues
• The scope of EGSS is environmental activities, i.e. economic
activities whose primary purpose is to reduce or eliminate
pressures on the environment or to make more efficient use of
natural resources.
• However, in some areas the scope of EGSS is unclear. For
example should the construction or operation of ocean
desalination plants be included? (the primary purpose and
technical nature of the product is debatable)
• The choices made have a big impact on the data.
• To operationalise, EGSS may require a clear definitional list (i.e.
what is in and what is out).
EGSS Application Issues
• Shrinking budgets and resources
• Challenge to maintain current
environmental program
Future Directions
• In Australia, Green Economy/EGSS not a
current policy focus.
• ABS 2017, modernisation of business
processes and information management.
However
• We need to be prepared for policy
changes.
• Need to build and learn on what has been
done.
Thanks for your attention