Indicators in the SEEA: Identifying the main aggregates in SEEA Part I Sjoerd Schenau Statistics Netherlands With contributions by Peter Comisari, Rutger Hoekstra, Mark De Haan, Roel Delahaye and Joe St. Lawrence

Content  Conlcusions previous LG meeting  Indicators in the revised SEEA  Key aggregates: Part I 1) Physical flow accounts 2) Monetary accounts 3) Asset accounts and depletion  Future issues  Questions to the London Group

Conclusions previous meeting  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 (Part I).  Indicators are applications of the accounts and should be discussed in application chapter (Part III)  It is not the Group’s role to recommend a list of indicators.  General consensus that the SEEA should not embrace any particular school of thoughts and thus it should not advocate the calculation of composite indices.

Indicators in the revised SEEA Part I: identification of key aggregates that can be directtly derived from the standard tables. Examples: Part III: general discussion on indicators from SEEA – General introduction, policy uses etc. – Aggregation issues, ratio indicators – Comparison with international indicator sets – Indictors derived from economic analyses and modelling application

Physical flow accounts 1)Conceptual framework 2)Subaccounts Economy-wide material flow accounts Residual accounts Water flow accounts Energy accounts

PIOT: Physical input output tables Conceptual framework PSUT Physical supply and use tables by type of material (products, used and unused raw materials, ecosystem inputs, waste and waste water flows within the economy, residuals) and by economic (production branches, final uses) and environmental Activities Specific PSUT Physical supply and use tables for specific groups or categories of material, like energy, metals, other minerals, water, biotic materials, air emissions, waste applications EW-MFAcc Economy-wide material flow accounts (excl. water) Input of materials to and output of materials from the domestic economy by type of material (raw materials, eco-system inputs products and residuals) Sub accountsApplications

Problems  Double counting For example: total material use: natural resources are conveted into products  Aggregation issues For example aggregation of all residuals Accounting identities within conceptual Framework do not provide usefull aggregates that can serve as significant indicators

Key aggregates from the subaccounts

Economy wide material flow accounts EWMFA indictors still under debat: Aggregation issue Proposal: a)include this short list of indicators in Part I and briefly point out the aggregation issues involved, which are b)more elaborately discussed in Part III of the revised SEEA.

Residual accounts  Gross emissions versus net emissions  Indicators for specific environmental problems  Aggregation based on scientific weights may provide useful indicators.

Energy accounts  Gross energy flow accounts: double counting  Net energy supply and use tables more usefull

Water accounts  Total water use and total supply less suitable

Monetary accounts Most key aggregates are total amounts, such as total environmental expenditure, total environmental taxes, etc. Most interesting indicators are ratio indicators (discussed in Part III)

Asset accounts

Depletion

Future issues 1.A discussion on indicators derived from hybrid accounts seems useful 2.The various chapters of Part I should include tables in which key accounting aggregates are explicitly exposed. A set of these tables should be developed 3.The same holds for indicators from monetary accounts 4.The explanation of the indicators and their applications in Part III (ratio indicators, indicators derived from analysis etc.) has to be worked out.

Questions for the London Group 1.Does the London group agree with the proposal presented in this paper to describe important key aggregates that can be directly derived from the standard tables in SEEA Part I and include a broader discussion on indicators and their uses in SEEA Part III? 2.Does the London group agree that key aggregates for physical flow accounts are best exposed in special tables or sub-accounts (and not directly from the conceptual framework)? 3.Has the London group additional suggestions for identifying key aggregates that could serve as building blocks for SEEA indicators?