1. Carbon Accounting in the UK: An overview of progress and issues
Brendan Freeman, Office for National Statistics (UK)
22nd Meeting of the London Group on Environmental Accounting
Oslo, September

2. Aims of the project
Test the feasibility of producing SEEA-EEA style Carbon Accounts
Assess current data sources
Test compatibility of classification systems
Produce provisional and partial estimates of stocks and flows of carbon within UK
Layout path forward for development of the accounts

3. Carbon accounting in SEEA
SEEA-EEA identifies carbon as one of four cross-cutting themes that frame our view of ecosystems.
Taking a thematic approach :
Enables carbon to be accounted for in its own right
Supports measurement of ecosystem condition/flows
Accounting for carbon stocks complements measurement within the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) framework

4. SEEA-EEA: High level carbon account

5. Carbon Cycle: Scope of UK carbon accounts
Stocks and flows of the carbon cycle give the underlying context for carbon accounting
UK Coverage
IN – Geosphere, Biosphere
Out – Oceans, Atmosphere, Accumulations in the Economy

6. Geocarbon
Stock and flow estimates for the geocarbon categories of coal, oil and gas were presented in the accounts.
Limestone and carbonate rocks excluded from study at this stage.
The broadest measure available for the selected geocarbon resources was adopted, while still attempting to align as closely as is possible to SEEA concepts.

7. Breakdown of geocarbon deposit types

8. Issue 1.
How to define the boundary of geocarbon stores for the purposes of ecosystem accounting?
Where stocks are considerable but large quantities are unlikely to be released by anthropogenic or natural activity within a reasonable time frame, it is questionable whether there is any point in recording the relevant amounts in the accounts.

9. Biocarbon
Primary focus of the UK carbon accounts is on terrestrial habitats/ ecosystems.
Can be broadly classified into:
organic soil carbon,
vegetation (biomass) carbon
carbon contained in animals living within the ecosystems; and
inorganic carbon contained in soils

10. Carbon accounts link to UK ecosystem accounts
Support estimates of:
extent (MtC),
condition (carbon content per Km2)
service flows (wood, carbon sequestration).

11. Combining classifications
Stock estimates based on UK field survey data.
Flows are generally taken from the Land Use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) section if the Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
This has a classification which accords to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reporting guidelines.

12. Issue 2
Ensuring no loss of coverage when aligning SEEA habitat classes to IPCC land use classes
Guidance on mapping between IPCC LULUCF Classifications and SEEA-EEA habitat classifications is limited.
The LULUCF classification does not include marine ecosystems including those intertidal areas recorded within the Coastal Margins Land Cover category.

13. Issue 3.
Identifying and isolating carbon flows within the LULUCF class of GHG emissions
Considerable difficulty in correctly identifying and isolating flows from natural processes, with the LULUCF source category: Other, harvested wood products being one example.
Reported on a net (emissions to, less removals from, the atmosphere) basis and are calculated based on estimated annual stock changes.

14. Issue 3. cont…
LULUCF does not distinguish between soil and biomass carbon, so estimates of changes in flows need to be combined together.

15. Questions, comments and suggestions welcomed…
Thank you!
Questions, comments and suggestions welcomed…