1. Environmental Economic Accounting Strategic Questions Walter Radermacher
UNCEEA meeting
New York June 2006

2. Depending on the wind, the striker’s position may vary…
The English Plan
Depending on the wind, the striker’s position may vary…

3. Radical, efficient, unstoppable… (ball’s speed may reach 297 km/h)
The German Plan
Radical, efficient, unstoppable… (ball’s speed may reach 297 km/h)

4. Iron defense, small ideas in midfield, passes to striker..and…Penalty
The Italian Plan
Iron defense, small ideas in midfield, passes to striker..and…Penalty

5. The Brasilian Plan
… no comments!

6. Stay at home and watch the others on TV!…...
The Danish Plan
Stay at home and watch the others on TV!…...

7. Official Statistics and Knowledge based Society
Mandelbrot set*
wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot-Menge

8. Mandelbrot area after 8 steps of magnification
statistics

9. Kondratieff cycles: A glance into the future?
steam engine
cotton
long-term growth path
gross domestic product
railway
steel industry
electrical engineering
chemistry
petrochemistry
automobile
information
technology
The Kondratieff cycles and their basic innovations
1. KONDRA-
TIEFF
2. KONDRA-
6. KONDRA-
3. KONDRA-
5. KONDRA-
4. KONDRA-
Source: chart based on Vahs, D., Burmester, R.: Innovationsmanagement.
Stuttgart: Schäffer-Poeschel, 1999, p.6.
recession
boom
Personenkreis, der wahrscheinlich vom Staat Unterstützung bekommt:
Studenten
Personen mit geringem Einkommen
Kranke

10. Environmental Economic Accounting: Element of Official Statistics
Relevance Measurability
Consistency

11. Goal functions – theoretical consistency
Capital approach (keep capital intact, sustainable development, Hicksian income) Focus: Stocks
Material flow approach (entropy, environmental impacts of flows, cross-border/cross-generation effects, productivity) Focus: Flows
Combination, modular + multidimensional approach

12. Point of perspective: Flows and systems
Goods
Services
Capital
Labour
Rest of the world
National
Economy
Global Ecology
material
energy
information m i e
Global Economy

13. Characteristics of EEA
Data for economic and political decisions, not for technical checks and regulations
Part of official statistics: macro-economic level, ex post and with reference to accounting periods
Average pressure is recorded rather than incidents, extreme situations, etc.
Value judgements must not be a (internal) part of statistical information

14. Complexity, Feed-Back Effects, Missing Knowledge
Causes and effects in a driving forces-pressures–state of the environment–response chain can only partly been quantified
Potential risk of all substances / materials that are transported, used and emitted is not sufficiently known
Permanent and detailed monitoring of every parcel of land or ocean will remain an illusion
Provide “adequate” knowledge for the decision making processes combined with a clearly described quality (metadata).

15. System boundaries

16. OECD work on Material Flows and Resource Productivity
What do we mean by “materials”?
Volume of flow (in tonnes)
Flows do not exist
Flows are of minor interest
Total material throughput
Potential specific environmental impact
(per tonne of material)
Nutrients
Water
Sand & gravel
Fossil fuels
Carbon
Timber
Paper
Steel
Aluminium
Heavy metals
Fertiliser
Pesticides
Hazardous chemicals
Solvents
PVC
Chemicals policy
Resource efficiency & recycling
Waste & emissions minimisation
Broad sustainability
considerations
Ecosystem inputs
Natural resources
Products
Residuals
9/19/2018

17. The micro-macro gap
Emerging effects: macro-level is more than an aggregation of micro-elements
Structural changes include feed-back effects, accumulation etc.; extrapolation of tools designed for marginal and continuous effects has limitations
Toolkit for valuation on local or project level (e.g. CBA) is not necessarily applicable for comprehensive valuation on macro level
The size of environmental depletion/degradation: marginal or more?

18. Quality of statistical information
Code of Ethics, SDDS, Code of Practice etc.
Expectation of the public, statistics = a matter of trust, GDP = sharp knife in the hands of children?
Share of work with partners
Communication / metadata

19. Communication of EEA: The role in decision making
GDP
Wrong decisions because of external effects

20. Communication of EEA: The role in decision making
GDP
Wrong Decisions because of external effects
Valuation of external effects and adjustment of GDP etc.
Optimal decisions
Adjustment approach

21. Communication of EEA: The role in decision making
GDP
Wrong decisions because of external effects
GDP etc. of alternative development paths
Alternative political decisions
GDP etc. of alternative development paths
Alternative political decisions
GDP etc. of alternative development paths
Alternative political decisions
GDP etc. of alternative development paths
Alternative political decisions
GDP etc. of alternative development paths
Alternative political decisions
Modelling approach

22. Scope and context of environmental accounting

23. Football World Cup 2006 - Data on countries and teams
                             "A time to make friends" - as everyone knows, this motto will accompany the Football World Cup finals starting on 9 June in Germany. For anyone - football fan or not - who wishes to get information on the guests coming to Germany, the Federal Statistical Office has compiled a new leaflet containing important data on the 32 participating countries. Apart from general information on each country, the leaflet contains informative data on the football scene (e.g. world cup successes, list of match scores achieved against the German team). The whole is completed by an illustration of all 32 countries on a world map. The electronic version of the new leaflet "Football World Cup Participating nations" is available here as a pdf download.

25. Thank you
for your attention!