Revision of SEEA 2003
Options for the structure of Part III on
applications
Rocky Harris
United Kingdom
Four options
1.
2.
3.
4.
Status quo (order used in SEEA 2003)
Natural resource classification
Environmental issue
Policy cycle
1. Status quo – existing chapter 11
A. Activities which lead to degradation of
environmental media, using physical and hybrid
flow accounts from chapters 3 and 4
B. Responses to degradation through defensive
expenditures and development of economic
instruments (chapters 5 and 6)
C. National wealth and changes due to depletion of
natural resources (chapters 7 and 8)
D. Use of pricing techniques to determine costeffectiveness of policies (chapter 9)
E. Adjustments to macro-economic aggregates
(chapter 10)
Option 1: status quo
•
•
•
•
Organised by the order of chapters
Further divided by indicators/analysis
Good showcase of how accounts are used
Lacks sense of how approaches from
different chapters can deal with the
same environmental issue
2. Natural resource classification
1.
2.
3.
Natural resources (mineral and energy, soil,
water including surface water, biological)
Land and surface water (developed land,
agricultural land, wooded land, major water
bodies, other land)
Ecosystems (terrestrial, aquatic and
atmospheric systems)
Also intangible environmental assets
Option 2: natural resource classification
•
•
•
•
Classification by environmental asset
Main policy focus – climate change – is a
subset of ‘atmospheric ecosystem’
Some overlap between items in policy
terms e.g. water
Lacks clear relationship to policy
concerns
3. Environmental issues – SD indicators
•
•
•
•
•
•
Atmosphere (4 indicators)
Land (10 indicators)
Oceans, seas and coasts (6 indicators)
Fresh water (5 indicators)
Biodiversity (7 indicators)
Consumption and production patterns (14
indicators)
Option 3: environmental issues
•
•
•
•
•
No ready classification - could be by
reference to groupings of SD indicators
Would be well-related to policy concerns
Good opportunity to link approaches from
different chapters …
… but may entail some repetition of
analytical methods
Focus on indicators may mean some
accounts not readily shown
The policy process and the evidence base
Base data availability
and analysis
Formulate
goals and
objectives
Identify
needs
Monitoring and
evaluation data
and analysis
Information about target area
and analysis
Assess
possible
delivery
options
Review
and adapt
Develop a
delivery
plan
Implement
plan
Set
operational
targets
Development of indicators, evidence and analysis
Data and analysis of
alternative options
4. The policy cycle
1. Identification of problem
2. Information about target areas
3. Assessment of policy options and setting of
targets
4. Monitoring and evaluation
4. SEEA and the policy cycle
Stage of policy cycle
SEEA approaches that might be
relevant
1. Identification of problem
Generally relies upon broad indicators,
which could be drawn from the
accounts
2. Information about target
areas
Diagnosis – requires detailed basic
statistics such as a link with sector
3. Assessment of policy
options and setting of
targets
Requires modelling and simulation
tools, understanding of financial
implications
4. Monitoring and evaluation Approaches such as decomposition
analysis, required to assess
contribution of different initiatives,
summarise overall progress
Option 4: policy cycle
•
•
•
•
Organised by type of evidence required
Treats different environmental issues in
uniform way
Could demonstrate integrated nature of the
accounts
But don’t policy users generally only think in
silos?
Summary of options
Advantages
Disadvantages
1. Status quo
(order of
chapters)
Clear links between chapters and
applications
Good show case of how accounts can
be used
Environmental issues not grouped together
2. Natural
resource
Environmental issues grouped together
to some extent
Coherent classification already exists
Might be integrated with MEA
classification of services
May involve repetition of approaches
No clear link with policy concerns
May require further sub-classification of flows
or ecosystem services
Some accounts are more generic and may
have to be treated separately
3.
Environmental
issue
Clear link with policy concerns
Can integrate stock, monetary and
valuation accounts
Would be consistent with the structure
of a section on indicators
May involve some repetition of approaches
May be difficult to find a range of applications
for some key areas such as biodiversity and
land
Maintains policy silos
4. Policy cycle
Shows integrated nature of accounts,
across environmental issue as well as
approaches from different accounts
Good link with policy approach
No clear link with specific policy issues
More work required to collate integrated
stock, monetary and valuation account
applications
Difficult to show how accounts can be
brought together
Conclusion: a hybrid structure?
A three part structure:
 Environmental issue – degradation of climate, water,
land, biodiversity (chapters 3 and 4, also 9). Would
provide the main link to the section on indicators. Could
incorporate applications relating to stocks (chapters 7
and 8) and elements of applications relating to taxes and
expenditures (chapters 5 and 6), to the extent that such
applications were relevant to the environmental issue
being covered;
 Environmental resources – renewables, non-renewables,
etc, mainly based on chapters 7 and 8, to the extent that
they were not covered in the previous part
 Other applications – taxes, expenditures, emission rights
etc, from chapters 5 and 6, to the extent that they were
not covered in the previous parts