1. Monitoring of key policies – sustainable development goals (SDGs) and circular economy
Point 7
Nicola Massarelli, Arturo de la Fuente
Unit E2 - Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development
DIMESA meeting October 2018

2. Structure EU SDG monitoring European strategy on SDG monitoring
EU monitoring framework for the circular economy
Conclusions

3. EU SDG MONITORING

4. Different levels of SDG monitoring
Reference to be monitored
Main Actors
Indicator set
Global (UN)
Agenda 2030's 17 goals and 169 targets
UN Statistical Commission,
IAEG-SDGs,
"Custodian" agencies
Global list of 232 indicators. Includes unavailable indicators
UN region (UNECE)
Developing guidance for member countries but no monitoring carried out EU
SDGs in an EU context - focus on EU policies, COM(2016) 739 final
Eurostat, other Commission services, National statistical offices
EU SDG indicator set. Based on existing indicators
National
National SD strategies, implementation of Agenda 2030 in national policies
National statistical offices and other national agencies
National SD indicator sets (exist in some countries, are being developed in others)
Thematic
Individual SDGs or specific topics
Thematic institutions (e.g. UN thematic agencies)
More detailed indicator sets
Other
Alternative monitoring
NGOs, think tanks, other (e.g. OECD, Bertelsmann Stiftung)
Global or ad hoc indicators, different and ad hoc methodologies
Quick reminder

5. Overview of main Eurostat achievements since previous DIMESA
Release of 2017 EU SDG monitoring package (Nov. 2017)
Review of the EU SDG indicator set in view of the monitoring report (Dec Apr. 2018) – 6 indicator replacements, 9 modifications
Release of 2018 EU SDG monitoring report and dissemination package (18 September 2018)
Launch of review of EU SDG indicator set in view of the monitoring report (Oct. - Dec. 2018)
Examples of replacements:
“In work at-risk-of-poverty rate” [also used in SDG 8 to monitor decent work] replaces “Housing cost overburden”
“Circular material use rate” replaces “Volume of freight transport relative to GDP”
“Estimated trends in fish stock biomass (index 2003 = 100)” replaces “Catches in major fishing areas”
Modifications: e.g. units of measure or breakdowns

6. Reviews of EU SDG indicator set
Goal: enhance relevance and statistical quality while ensuring comparability between monitoring rounds
Approach:
preserve key features of EU SDG indicator set [6 indicators per SDG, multipurpose indicators]
new indicators replacing existing ones [only if improving relevance for monitoring SDGs in an EU context and/or if of better statistical quality than their predecessors]
“On hold” list with indicator proposals to be considered in future reviews [currently 18 “on hold” + 6 “current” to be reinforced]
Broad consultative process, incl. SDI WG
Original indicator set agreed by the ESSC in May 2017.

7. EU SDG indicator set 2018 (after review): Main characteristics
100 different indicators, evenly distributed across the 17 SDGs
42 multipurpose indicators, reinforcing links between goals and narrative of reporting
88 indicators updated annually
67 indicators from official statistics, 33 from other sources [EEA, OECD, EIGE etc.]
55 aligned with UN SDG indicators
28 aligned with high-level scoreboards of EU policies [10 Commission priorities, Europe 2020, European Pillar of Social Rights]

8. Eurostat 2018 EU SDG monitoring package
Monitoring report & Brochure
Dedicated SDG website
Statistics Explained
articles
Digital publication – NEW!
Online database

10. Digital publication SDGs&Me
Mainly addressed to young audience
Interactive
Selection of EU SDG indicators that are «closer» to non-specialists
Mainly addressed to young audience
Selection of EU SDG indicators «closer» to non-specialists
Interactive

11. Next steps
Finalise ongoing review of EU SDG indicator set for report [till end Dec SDI WG is involved]
Continuation of work on indicators 'on hold'
2019 EU SDG monitoring report foreseen in June/July, to inform the 2019 High Level Political Forum

12. EUROPEAN STRATEGY ON SDG MONITORING

13. European strategy on SDG monitoring
Background
Suggested by SDI WG in March 2018
Inspired by positive experience with the “European strategy for environmental accounts”
Exchange of views
21 out of 27 replying countries (+EEA) see a need for a European strategy on SDG monitoring

14. Possible topics from exchange of views
Support to the UN monitoring process, e.g. “tier 3” global indicators, 2020 review of the global indicator list, alignment EU-global indicators
Development of new indicators, e.g. on migration, subsidies, violence prevention, governance, sentiments, cities, climate change, oceans, land ecosystems, etc.
Better coverage of sub-populations (e.g. disabled people, migrants or the ageing population) and higher territorial detail
Identification and treatment of interlinkages and spill- over effects

15. Possible topics from exchange of views (cont’d)
Effective Communication
Improvement of existing indicators, incl. comparability and timeliness
Cooperation with external producers
Consistency EU – national indicators
Based on discussion at DIMESA, Eurostat will draft a plan for next steps

16. EU MONITORING FRAMEWORK FOR THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

17. Public release in January 2018
European Commission 'circular economy package'
Released in January 2018
Plastic strategy, interface chemicals-products, waste legislation, monitoring framework
New Eurostat website with new institutional layout
More visual, more interactive, less text

18. Monitoring framework CE

19. Sankey diagram material flows
Sankey diagrams of material flows present visually the flows of materials entering in the economy, the processing of materials into products, until they become waste and are discharged in the environment, or treated and re-fed to the economy.

20. Circular economy & SDGs
Consistency sought where appropriate in view of different but overlapping purposes
Topics in CE framework potentially relevant for SDGs:
waste generation and management
decoupling (including resource productivity)
use of secondary raw materials (including CMUR)
sustainable chemicals and low carbon transport
food waste
Currently, 4 CE indicators are used to monitor progress towards the SDG in an EU context
Waste generation excluding major mineral wastes (3b)
Recycling rates (5)
Recycling rates specific waste streams (6)
Circular material use rate (7b)

21. Possible next steps on circular economy
Monitoring framework will not change soon
Eurostat intends to continue working on circular economy
Areas needing more data or indicator development:
Innovation, product design, eco-labelling and food waste
Improved visual tools (sankey diagram of material flows)
Sources and methods:
Further clarification borderlines products-materials-residuals
More and better data on production and trade of secondary raw materials
Interface between EW-MFA and waste statistics
Data on material footprints (raw material consumption)
Data for repair and reuse units in public sector
Comparability of municipal waste statistics
Certain borderline cases e.g. leasing in reuse sector
Clarify and establish terminology e.g. recycling vs recovery

22. EoV: existence of national circular economy monitoring framework?
Yes: 5 countries (ES, FR, NL, SE, SK)
No: 20 countries
Comments:
PT has action plan but no monitoring framework
AT, EE: monitoring framework still in discussion

23. CONCLUSIONS

24. DIMESA is invited to:
Take note of Eurostat activities on SDGs and circular economy
Exchange views about
cooperation to meet the challenges of SDG monitoring at global, EU and national level
the need for a strategy for developing SDG indicators
cooperation for improvement of data about circular economy

25. RESERVE FOR Q&A

26. GLOBAL, REGIONAL AND NATIONAL SDG MONITORING

27. Global SDG monitoring: main activities
UN reporting to 2018 HLPF, based on global SDG indicators
In HLPFs: July (ECOSOC); Autumn (UN GA)
IAEG-SDGs working on:
tier reclassification, esp. tier III [still 62 out of 232, as of 11 May]
Data flows
Data disaggregations
Use of geo-spatial information for SDG monitoring
Proxy indicators
2020 comprehensive review
Next meeting of IAEG-SDGs in Stockholm, 5-8 Nov. 2018
[28 member countries incl. DE, FR, NL, SE, international and supra-national organisations incl. Eurostat are observers.]

28. Global monitoring: key country challenges [unchanged from last year, but work is ongoing]
Data flows from national authorities to the custodian agencies [choices: centralised vs. decentralised approach; set up of national reporting platforms; role of NSO. CES initiatives aim at helping]
Validation of national data in UN global database [issue: differences with data from national agencies are frequent and not sufficiently documented by custodian agencies. An ad-hoc group (incl. CCSA, IAEG members and UNSD) is working to find a compromise between the needs of the national and of the custodian agencies. Final guidelines expected for approval at 50th UNSC session in spring 2019]
The sub-group consisting of co-chairs of CCSA, co-chairs of the IAEG-SDG as well as other IAEG-SDG members (including the Statistical Office of Germany as Co-Chair of the drafting group of the guidelines) and UNSD was set up.

29. UNECE activities and national monitoring
Activities in UNECE region:
steering group overseeing implementation of “CES Road Map on Statistics for Sustainable Development Goals” [recommendations to help countries implement their SDG reporting systems, endorsed by 65th CES in June 2017]
National monitoring:
EU countries are progressing in defining national implementation of the SDGs and related indicator sets [Overview on Eurostat’s website]
EL, HU, IE, LV, LT, MT, PL, RO, ES, SK, CH reported to 2018 HLPF; HR, FR, UK, IS, LI and TR will report to 2019 HLPF [since 2016, all EU MS will have reported, except BG and AT]

30. Details on 2018 review of EU SDG indicator set

31. Indicator replacements in DIMESA fields:
SDG 12: “Circular material use rate” replacing “Volume of freight transport relative to GDP”.
SDG 14: "Estimated trends in fish stock biomass (index 2003 = 100)" replacing “Catches in major fishing areas”.
SDG 15: “Grassland butterfly index” replacing “Change in artificial land cover” (the latter is merged with “Artificial land cover per capita”)

32. Indicator adjustments in DIMESA fields:
SDG 12: “Recycling and landfill rate of waste excluding major mineral wastes” adjusted to “Recycling rate of waste excluding major mineral wastes” (all types of waste treatment are available in the source dataset of Eurostat’s database).
SDG 14: “Sufficiency of marine sites designated under the EU Habitats Directive” adjusted to “Surface of marine sites designated under the EU Habitats Directive (km2)”, to increase number of data points for assessment.
SDG 14: “Assessed fish stocks exceeding F/Fmsy”: “F/Fmsy arithmetic mean value” replaced by less volatile dimension “model based F/Fmsy values”.
SDG 15: “Sufficiency of terrestrial sites designated under the EU Habitats Directive” adjusted to “Surface of terrestrial sites designated under the EU Habitats Directive (km2)”, to increase number of data points for assessment.
SDG 15: “Common bird index”: Transformation of index 1990 = 100 to index 2000 = 100 to enlarge number of presented Member States data for farmland birds.

33. Alignment with UN SDG indicators and high-level scoreboards of EU policies
55 EU SDG indicators aligned with UN list Reasons for limited alignment with UN list include missing data availability (8 of 18 indicators «on hold» are part of UN list) and focus on relevance for EU policies (see table below).
Alignment with high-level scoreboards of EU policies
total
in EU set
(review 2018)
in UN list
Impact indicators for Strategic Plan referring to the 10 Commission priorities 36 16
(+ 2) 8
Headline indicators for Europe 2020 Strategy
8 (+/-) 3
Main indicators of Social Scoreboard for European Pillar of Social Rights 12
(+1) 2