United Nations Statistics Division Activities in Environment Statistics and Accounts

UNSD approach: integration of environment statistics and accounts UNSD has adopted an integrated approach to environment statistics and accounting by which environmental accounting provides the framework for organizing environmental and related information. UNSD promotes the harmonization of international data collection activities, including their harmonization with the accounting framework, to produce policy relevant statistics which allow for the analysis of inter-linkages between the economy and the environment, much needed for sustainable development. This is also in line with the long-term objective and programme of work of the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (UNCEEA).

United Nations Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting Mandate: to mainstream environmental-economic accounting and elevate it to the level of official statistics. UN Statistical Commission endorsed the plan of elevating the SEEA-2003 to the level of a standard. A research agenda is being developed. The list of issues will be discussed at the next meeting of the London Group and of the UNCEEA in a week time.

United Nations Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting Furthering the research agenda for elevating the SEEA-2003 to the level of a standard by 2010 is an important task which the UNCEEA plans to undertake with the assistance of various groups and in particular the London Group on Environmental Accounting and the Oslo Group on Energy Statistics. In this regard, we strongly encourage Eurostat and the EU member states to take an active role in the methodological developments.

Intersecretariat Working Group on Environment Statistics (IWG-ENV) The objective of the group is to firmly anchor environment statistics as part of official statistics by improving and strengthening basic environmental data. Harmonization of international data collection activities, including their harmonization with the accounting framework, is part of the group’s mandate.

Area in focus: Water statistics User-Producer Conference on Water Accounting for Integrated Water Resource Management and the handbook Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting for Water Resources (SEEAW) The Conference was organized under the auspices of the UN CEEA. The Conference endorsed the SEEAW as the much needed framework for hydrological-economic information in support of Integrated Water Resource Management. Some countries presented their experience in usinf water accounting for reporting to the Water Framework Directive. A Roundtable of users and producers of water information for promoting awareness and the implementation in countries was established. Many countries demonstrated interest in Implementing the SEEAW. The World Bank has offered to pilot water accounting in countries in which they have water projects. UNESCO – IHE has offered to develop a two-weeks training programme on water accounting. The UN World Water Assessment Programme has requested that water accounting be put on the agenda of the next meeting of UN Water for endorsement.

Area in focus: Water statistics IWG-ENV Subgroup on water statistics Objectives: to achieve complementarity in international data collection, removing redundancies, and sharing data and country information between all parties involved in the collection and compilation of statistics on the quantitative and qualitative aspects of freshwater resources and their use; to support country efforts in developing water statistics, including data collection, data treatment, quality assurance and dissemination, through sharing of experiences, developing methodologies, promoting best practices and capacity building. The members of the subgroup are UNSD, FAO, UNEP, GEMS/Water, WMO, OECD, Eurostat, UN ECE and UN ESCWA. Currently the subgroup is working on the detailed comparison of water definitions used by the organizations engaged in the collection of water statistics, with the aim of developing an agreed set of core water statistics classifications including concordance on definitions. The set of definitions and classifications of the soon-to-be endorsed SEEAW as standard will be the reference for harmonisation, alignment and creation of concordances.

Area in focus: Water statistics Manual on Water Statistics and the water questionnaires UNSD is working on a practical data collection manual on water statistics which will support the compilation of its water statistics questionnaire and the SEEAW standard tables. The questionnaire covers all aspects of water statistics and it can be used also as the vehicle to collect information in a time series format to integrate the water information in the accounting framework. The revision of the Joint OECD/Eurostat questionnaire presents an ideal opportunity to bring in line the questionnaire with the SEEAW standard tables. We therefore encourage Eurostat and OECD to consider the standard tables and the SEEAW definitions and classifications, when revising the questionnaire. On the basis of a previous analysis the differences between the questionnaire and the standard tables are minor and, we believe, within the scope of the revision of the questionnaire.

Data collection and dissemination The ongoing 2006 data collection is focusing on water and waste statistics. The EECCA and Balkan countries received the questionnaires earlier with a short deadline and the data was submitted after validation to EEA for inclusion in the Pan-European State of the Environment Report. All other countries are currently sending back the completed questionnaires. So far the response rate has been considerably higher than in the previous years. The air and land parts of the questionnaire have not been sent out this time; UNSD will use existing international and other sources to compile available statistics in these areas. The data will be made available on the UNSD website by the end of 2006; new web presentations are under development. UNSD data will be complemented by the OECD/Eurostat data when they become available.

Capacity building UNSD is assisting the ECOWAS and the Gulf Council Countries in the development of environment statistics. An Inter-regional Adviser on Environmental-Economic Accounting will join UNSD in the coming months and UNSD will strengthen its technical cooperation programmes on environmental-economic accounting and in particular on water accounts. UNSD is already working with China and the Dominican Republic on the implementation of the SEEAW and will work on other case studies in cooperation with other international organizations.

Coordination of regional activities There are numerous regional initiatives towards the development and collection of core sets of environmental indicators/statistics (ESCWA, EECCA, CARICOM, MEDSTAT etc.) UNSD has made significant efforts to coordinate and harmonize these activities and to ensure their complementarity with existing international data collections.

Briefing about the 6th meeting of the IWG-ENV (14 June, Luxembourg)