Joint meeting of the Working Groups on Environmental Accounts & Environmental Expenditure Statistics Luxembourg, 10 March 2015 Integrated geo-statistical accounting for ecosystems (point 11 of the agenda) Eurostat – Unit E2 Anton Steurer

What is the EU policy context? EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020: – Action 2 Mapping and Assessment of ecosystems & their services (->MAES) – Integrate natural capital into accounting and reporting systems EU 7 th Environmental Action Programme – Objective 1: preserve ‘natural capital’ – Objective 5: build environmental knowledge base Environment Knowledge Community at EU level to support knowledge base for 7EAP 2

EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy: Target 2 3 Action 5: Improve knowledge of ecosystems and their services in the EU Member States, with the assistance of the Commission, will map and assess the state of ecosystems and their services in their national territory by 2014, assess the economic value of such services, and promote the integration of these values into accounting and reporting systems at EU and national level by 2020.

Ecosystem capital: GENERATINGGENERATING What is ‘natural capital': MAES working definition Focus of talk 4

International & EU guidance documents as framework: United Nations, European Commission, FAO, OECD and World Bank (2014): System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Experimental Ecosystem Accounting. eeaRev/eea_final_en.pdf eeaRev/eea_final_en.pdf 5 European Commission (2013): Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their services. sment/pdf/MAESWorkingPaper2013.pdf sment/pdf/MAESWorkingPaper2013.pdf CBD (2015): Ecosystem natural capital accounts – a quick start package. And others..

Coverage of 'natural capital' in SEEA? 6 SEEA CF: defines environmental assets as naturally occurring living and non- living components of the Earth, together constituting the biophysical environment, which may provide benefits to humanity 1. Mineral and energy resources (oil, gas, mineral resources) 2. Land 3. Soil resources 4. Timber resources (cultivated and natural) 5. Aquatic resources (cultivated and natural) 6. Biological resources (other - livestock, wild animals……) 7. Water resources (surface, ground and soil water resources) SEEA EEA: adds ecosystems and in principle the atmosphere and the sea 8. Ecosystems 9. Planetary systems (atmosphere, climate and hydrological system…)

What is the challenge? I Many different & separate & expensive data gathering exercises but not really tailored towards measuring ecosystems LUCAS (ground observation) COPERNICUS (satellite images) Farm Structure Survey (agricultural census) Corine Land Cover Natura 2000 data Biodiversity monitoring Forest statistics Et cetera 7 Water FD reporting

What is the challenge? II We need biophysical accounts for direct use and as a basis for valuation studies, upscaling We need an EU layer of accounts as a frame for countries and for EU policy -> we need the data foundation & the capacity to analyse these data We need experiments and demonstrations with these accounts (on ecosystem capital) We need stepwise standards & recommendations towards a common methodology => Knowledge innovation project on ‘natural capital’ 8

What is the challenge? III Tasks identified for ‘KIP’ on natural capital: 1)Identify the required information 2)Develop a shared sampling frame and an integrated system 3)Set joint minimum data standards (e.g. on geo- referencing) 4)Establish a shared data platform 5)Integrate all available data and make sure new data fit into the system 9

Regulation 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts Article 10: …..every 3 years the Commission shall submit a report …. if appropriate accompanied by proposals for introducing new modules, such as …… water accounts, waste accounts, forest accounts, ecosystem services accounts…. Economic crisis massively slowed progress (no human resources in MS, no political support, desire to reduce burden…) Monetary valuation problematic for NSIs (conceptual and quality issue) 10

Next steps within the KIP Fully map available data sets at EU level; Develop and implement an overall integrated information system based on a combination of various data sets, including LUCAS-type surveys and the analysis of satellite images providing layers of geo-referenced data. The system should be modular, with generic layers. Promote further harmonisation and standardisation of data sets and environmental reporting (e.g. via INSPIRE) to make data sets developed at national and EU level more complementary; Develop and implement a joint analytical frame (sample, data categories…) that ensures all efforts efficiently contribute to improving the data foundation.. Establish and maintain an analytical capacity at EU level that ensures that basic accounts and analyses are available for the EU, allowing Member States and other stakeholders to develop plug-in applications. Link and integrate this project to any forthcoming digital policy of the European Commission as well as to the European Statistical Program 2013 – 2020, with a specific focus on the data revolution and big data 11

Eurostat Thanks!