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EnvironmentalEconomic Accounting
Introduction in the EnvironmentalEconomic Accounting
2015
Federal Statistical Office of Germany
Published by: Statistisches Bundesamt (Federal Statistical Office), Wiesbaden
Homepage: www.destatis.de
You may contact us at:
www.destatis.de/contact
Central Information Service
Phone: +49 (0) 611 / 75 24 05
Periodicity: Non recurrent
Published on 4 August 2015
Order number: 5859005-15900-4 [PDF]
© Statistisches Bundesamt, Wiesbaden 2015
Reproduction and distribution, also of parts, are permitted provided that the source is mentioned.
1
Contents
1
Environmental-Economic Accounting of the Federal Statistical Office ............. 4
2
Environmental-Economic Accounting and sustainability policy....................... 8
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InEnvironmental-Economic accounting of the Federal Statistical Office
1
Environmental-Economic Accounting of the
Federal Statistical Office
Environmental-Economic Accounting (EEA) describes the interrelationship between
the economy and the environment. For its economic activities, production and consumption and economy not only uses labour and produced assets but also natural
assets. Natural assets include raw materials such as sources of energy, ores, other
minerals and water as well as land that serves as a location for production, consumption and various leisure activities. These parts of natural assets are used directly. Other
components of natural assets are ecosystems and other natural systems such as the
atmosphere. They support economic activities by absorbing and eliminating residues
and pollutants arising from production and consumption, such as atmospheric emissions, waste and effluent.
Figure 1 shows the interrelationship between economy 1 and environment. On the one
hand natural assets are used as input for the economic process. On the other hand the
economy discharges residues and pollutants.
Figure 1 Interrelationship economy environment
Environment
Economy
Extraction of raw
materials, use of
environmental
services
Consumer products
Net capital formation
Quantitative and
qualitative change
of natural assets
Private households
Production
Labour
Capital stock
(produced assets)
Capital services
Environmental protection expenditure
Natural assets
The use of natural assets − similar to the produced capital stock − generally involves
depletion, which means that the burden or impact on the environment causes changes
in its state and/or natural assets. On the one hand, these changes are of a quantitative
nature (e.g. a decreasing amount of non-renewable raw materials); on the other, they
have many qualitative aspects (deteriorating air quality due to emissions of pollutants,
diminished biodiversity etc.). Attempts are being made to prevent these negative
changes with targeted, appropriate environmental protection measures, such as by
avoiding environmental burden (e.g. desulphurising flue gas) or remedying damage
that has already been done (e.g. cleaning up polluted sites). The interdependencies
between the economy and the environment therefore are not restricted to showing the
burdens on the environment; in fact the pattern also includes changes to the state of
1 Both are shown in simplified form in the diagram.
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1 Environmental-Economic Accounting of the Federal Statistical Office
the environment brought about by pollution and the steps taken to avoid it or repair
the damage.
The EEA aims to describe all three forms of interdependence between economy and
environment – environmental burden, the environmental state and environmental
measures. The description of these interdependencies takes as its starting point the
fact, mentioned above, that a national economy not only uses labour and capital but
also nature. Therefore, the basic idea is to take the commonly accepted definition of a
national economy and expand it by a "factor nature". The System of National Accounts
(SNA) provides a comprehensive and systematic definition of economic activity.
Principally, they show monetary transactions (flows) and assets using standardised
classifications. EEA were conceived as a satellite system for the national accounts, the
objective of which is to extend the presentation of the economic process by a depiction of the interrelationship between the economic system and the environment. The
environmental flows and inventories are almost always presented in physical units. For
example, air emissions are expressed in tonnes, energy consumption in Terajoules,
area used for transport and settlement purposes (land use) in square metres.
An important feature is the full compatibility of both systems − the national accounts
and the EEA. The underlying concepts, definitions, distinctions, and classifications in
both systems match as far as this is logically sensible and possible. This also applies
and particularly so for the economic classifications used in the EEA and the SNA. Because of these common concepts, definitions, distinctions and classifications the
results of the EEA can be linked internally and to the identically categorised SNA data
and they can be analysed jointly. Compatibility with the national accounts permits for
example to relate the environmental parameters, which are mostly shown in physical
units (such as in tonnes), to the economic indices (in euros). Of particular importance
here are the data on the efficiency of environmental use, expressed as an arithmetical
ratio of the figure of interest (such as raw materials consumption) to the gross value
added (GVA) or to the gross domestic product (GDP). With regard to the details of calculating productivities and intensities see the notes on the tables in Part 1.
The concept underlying the EEA is to express the status quo and the change in natural
assets in units of money, so as to be able to determine what is known as corrected
macro-economic aggregates, such as the ecological domestic product. Particularly
insofar as such evaluations do not assess the quantitative decrease of resources, but
refer to qualitative changes of other components, they are problematic in many
respects with regard to the methods used (valuation/aggregation problems, restricted
knowledge about correlation between cause and effect and considerable regional differences). That is why such calculations tend not to be carried out by the Federal Statistical Office but by scientific research institutes. Consequently, when presenting
environmental pollution and the state of the environment EEA of the Federal Statistical
Office is restricted to physical data.
Environmental economic accounts and national accounts describe two dimensions of
sustainable development– economy and environment – and their interrelationship.
Therefore they provide an important and useful data base for political discussions
concerning sustainability.
Figure 2 shows the different reporting modules of the EEA of the Federal Statistical
Office. They reflect the internationally recognized pressure-state-response model, used
to statistically show correlations between the environment and the economy. The
environmental pressures reporting module shows the material flows listed behind it:
the amount of raw materials extracted per year, the amount of pollutants emitted per
year etc. This reporting module does not include produced goods or services, but raw
materials extracted from nature and residual materials and hazardous substances
emitted back into nature. The respective flows for each type of material are booked as
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1 Environmental-Economic Accounting of the Federal Statistical Office
consolidated quantities, in what is known as the material account, which charts the
flows of material between a national economy and both the natural environment and
the world's other national economies.
Figure 2 Modules of German Environmental-Economic Accounting
Pressure
State
Physical flow accounts
Physical stock accounts
Physical flows
Quantitative and qualitative
changes in the stock of
natural assets in physical
units
Economy wide material
flow accounts
Energy flow accounts by
branches
Primary material by branches
Emission accounts by
branches
Water accounts by branches
Physical Input-Output tables
Sectoral reporting modules
Housing and transport area
by branches
Response
Environmental
protection measures
Environment related flows
and stocks
Environmental protection
measures
Environmental taxes
Transport and Environment
Agriculture and Environment
Forest Accounting
Private households and the environment
At present, the state of the environment reporting module of the German EEA only
expresses the component of the natural capital presented by land area. Especially land
use by housing and transport are in the focus of this reporting module. Looking at how
much land area is used by which economic stakeholder, however, can not be realised
for the time being. Landscapes and ecosystems form yet another essential component
of the natural capital, which should principally be included by accounting. In Germany
these aspect are dealt with by Agency for Nature Protection, not by environmental
economic accounts. Displaying the stocks of mineral resources – a third aspect of the
natural assets, which may be of great importance for countries rich in raw materials –
has a fairly low priority as far as German EEA is concerned and has so far not been
considered. A reporting module has so far only been developed for forest.
In the module environmental protective measures, components already included in
the monetary transactions of the national accounts are shown separately and, as a
rule, broken down further. Here, for example, environmentally relevant taxes, such as
vehicle tax or fuel tax, are shown. Another important part of environmental protective
measures consist of investment and ongoing expenditure for environmental protection
in the government and manufacturing industry sectors, as well as privatised public
enterprises. Contrary to the physical electric power accounts of the material and energy
flow accounts and the physical asset accounts describing the state of the environment,
the EEA shows the environmental protective measures in the form of monetary
accounts.
The sectoral reporting modules, presently used for the transport, agriculture, forestry,
and private households sectors, enable extending the EEA standard programme by
single items for politically significant topics. For such sectors, these reporting modules
provide a much more detailed picture of the complete range of interdependencies
between the environment and the economy, across the EEA components mentioned
above.
Typical of EEA is considering the environmental impact (removing raw materials, land
use, services of the environment) of economic activities from two angles: the first
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question is to what extent an environmental factor enters the economic cycle or is
adversely affected in production or consumption of private households. Apart from this
it is however also important to know what quantities of environmental factors are being employed and for what final purpose. This second assessment not only assigns
directly consumed factor components to a specific category of use (such as the consumption activities of private households), but also those quantities needed to manufacture all the goods consumed by the households (at all stages of the production
process) and therefore consumed, as it were, "indirectly" by the households. This contrasting of direct and indirect parameters is comparable with the presentation of origin
and use in the national accounts, and applies to numerous subjects of EEA.
"Upstream" indirect consumption cannot be derived from the accounting system directly. Allocation takes place through a model approach based on input-output tables
(IOT). IOTs are central elements of the national accounts; they include details of the
upstream interdependencies between the individual production sectors, to name just
one example.
The concept of Environmental Economic Accounts was established and further developed at international level by the United Nations, in particular, and adopted in February 2012 as an international statistical standard "System of Integrated Environmental
and Economic Accounting (SEEA Central Framework 2012) " 2. In Germany substantial
sections of the environmental economic accounts are drawn up based on these conceptual proposals in the SEEA.
2 European Commission/Food and Agriculture Organisation/International Monetary Fund/Organisation for
Economic Co-Operation and Development/ United Nations/World Bank (2012): System of
Environmental-Economic Accounting – Central Framework, White cover publication, pre-edited text
subject to official editing.
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Environmental-Economic Accounting and sustainability
policy
The aim of EEA is – as described in Section 1 – to systematically portray the relationships between economic activities and the environment. EEA is therefore predestined
to provide important and statistically reliable information on sustainability policy topics relating to the economy and the environment. Supporting the Federal Government's
sustainability policy has become an important area of EEA application in recent years.
The development of the indicators specified in the Federal Government's national sustainability strategy is described and updated in the regularly published indicator report
on sustainable development in Germany (latest edition 2014, see EnvironmentalEconomic Accounting).
The aim of sustainability indicators is to inform the public and the media, using easily
understandable messages, about developments in important fields and to control the
success of policy decisions. Sustainability policy demands a holistic approach in order
to prevent it becoming merely a collection of unrelated, individual topics and indicators. An integrating view is particularly promising. It should focus on the varying needs
of politics, economy, environment, and society, and thus can highlight conflicts in
objectives and show possible solutions.
Figure 3 The relation between indicator approach and accounts for the derivation
of headline indicators for sustainable development
Indicator approach
Accounting approach
Headline indicators
Primary data
Primary data
Communication and performance control
Formulation of measures, integrated analysis,
balancing conflicting goals
Two different approaches for deriving sustainability indicators should be pointed out
here. What is known as the data or information pyramid demonstrates the relationship
between the various basic data at the broad base of the pyramid and the few selected
key or headline indicators at the top of the pyramid (see Figure 3). In the indicator
approach (at the left of the figure) the key indicators are derived directly from the basic
data (primary data). Such directly derived key indicators generally appear isolated,
meaning that interrelationships between them are not always immediately recognisable. In the accounting approach (at the right of the figure), in contrast, the middle level
of the information pyramid is occupied by the additional accounting data. Basic datadriven accounting generates additional secondary data, thus creating a system of interrelated information. The advantages of using the interlinked national and environmental-economic accounting systems as suitable data base were previously pointed
out in Section 1. The systems are consistent because uniform concepts, definitions,
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2 Environmental-Economic Accounting and sustainability policy
demarcations, and structures are used. A particularly important classification in national and environmental-economic accounting is the differentiation according to economic activities (industries or production branches and private household consumption), among others. Because all core environmental-economic accounting results have
a similar structure, they can be related both with each other and with identically structured national accounting data.
Overall, this allows an integrated analysis of the indicators. Reporting using indicators
integrated in environmental-economic accounting makes the relationships between
certain developments more easily recognisable and contributes to better estimates of
the effects of potential political measures. It is therefore desirable that as many indicators in an indicator set as possible are derived from accounting.
The specific benefit in terms of the indicator discussion results from the central characteristics of the accounting approach: system orientation, completeness and consistency, independence from specific topics. More specifically, the results of environmentaleconomic accounting can be used for the environmental indicators in sustainability
reporting in numerous ways:
•
Environmental-economic accounting provides data as a basis for calculating indicators which, in contrast to the underlying statistical basic data, are already suitably grouped in terms of national statements on the economic–environment system. From a methodological perspective, it is highly beneficial if indicators are derived from scientifically oriented, systematic and uniform concepts such as environmental-economic accounting, and can be interlinked with these concepts. This
also facilitates interpretation of the corresponding indicators.
•
Conversely, the results of environmental-economic accounting can underlie the
indicators thanks to more deeply differentiating and consistently structured data.
This allows the indicator sets, often limited to merely listing the indicators, to become more informative by showing interlinkages. This affects relationships between different sustainability dimensions (in environmental-economic accounting
primarily between the economy and the environment) as well as between various
environmental topics. The political demand for integration of environmental aspects in sectoral policies in particular requires data which allow the economic and
environmental facts for the respective sector to be analysed in an integrated way
and the overall effect of the varied sectoral policies to be studied.
•
The results of environmental-economic accounting provide the starting point for
more detailed analyses and forecasts, as well as for formulating measures. In particular, these include:
 Deriving overall economic indicators. Of particular interest are indicators
which link monetary economic variables with physical environmental indicators (example: energy productivity as a link between the gross domestic product (GDP) and energy consumption) in the form of efficiency measures (e.g.
productivities or intensities).
 Deriving sectoral indicators (e.g. specific energy consumption of individual industries or production branches). Here, too, the sector-specific efficiency indicators are of particular importance.
 Decomposition analysis: this method allows to describe the development of
an indicator by the evolution of its influencing factors (e.g. the development of
emissions can be analysed for efficiency increases or for structural effects,
changes in general demand, and others).
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 Input-output analysis: the environmental pressure data available in physical
units are linked to monetary or physical input-output tables in order to calculate the cumulative effects. In addition to the direct burden (e.g. the direct energy consumption of a production area), the indirect effects (e.g. resulting
from the use of energy at all production stages of a product) is also taken into
consideration when calculating the cumulative effects. The effect of displacing
environment-intensive activities to the rest of the world can be quantified.
 Econometric modelling approaches: the environmental-economic accounting
data can be used in multi-sectoral, econometric modelling approaches in order to model scenarios of an integrated view of the development of environmental and economic variables.
The national strategy for sustainable development (The Federal Government:
Perspectives for Germany, 2002) was last updated by the 2012 progress report. 3 The
core of the national strategy is given by 21 indicators for the 21st century, with which
policy makers define those topics regarded as particularly important from a sustainability perspective. Most of the indicators 4 are furnished with quantified target values,
making the successes or failures of sustainability policies better measurable. The Federal Statistical Office compiles the sustainable development indicator reports on behalf of the Federal Government. They are published every four years as a component of
the progress reports and – every two years – as independent publication. The indicator
reports are accompanied by a collection of data (online only) containing all time series'
and background data on the sustainability indicators (most recent data on the Indicator Report 2014; Environmental-Economic Accounting).
The majority of the data on which the indicators are based is taken from official statistics. Several of the strategy indicators are anchored in national and environmentaleconomic accounting and can therefore be thoroughly analysed and underlain with
additional information. In environmental-economic accounting this affects the energy
productivity and primary energy consumption indicators (strategy indicators 1a and
1b), raw material productivity (indicator 1c), greenhouse gases (indicator 2), the increase in housing and transport areas (indicator 4), transport (indicators 11a, b, c and
d) and air pollution (indicator 13). The raw material productivity indicator is calculated
within environmental-economic accounting.
The sustainability strategy's indicators on the environment and the economy are continuously – that is, at least annually − updated and published online (EnvironmentalEconomic Accounting). Table 1 shows the current time series' at the time of publication
of the present report (in abbreviated form here only the environmentally relevant indicators).
3 Federal Government: Nationale Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie, Fortschrittsbericht 2012.
www.bundesregierung.de/Content/DE/Artikel/2012/02/2012-02-15-kabinett-fortschrittsbericht2012.html
4 The strategy currently comprises 38 indicators.
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Table 1 Environmental Indicators of the German Strategy for Sustainable
Development*
Indicator
Unit
1
1990
1994
1999
2000
2010
2013
2014
Goals
Target years
1990 = 100
100
111.3
119.6
122.5
135.7
146.0
155.8
200
2020
Primary energy
consumption (1b)
1990 = 100
100
95.2
96.1
96.6
95.4
92.3
87.9
76,3/
47,7
2020/2050
Raw material
productivity (1c)
1994 = 100
−
100
115.5
119.8
147.4
147.4
…
200
2020
Greenhouse gas
emissions (2)
1990 = 100
100
90.0
83.8
83.7
75.6
76.3
…
79/
60/
20 - 5
2008-2012/
2020/2050
Share of renewable energy
sources in final energy
consumption (3a)
%
1.9
0.0
3.4
3.7
10.3
12.4
…
18/
60
2020/2050
Share of renewable energy
sources in electricity
consumption (3b)
%
3.4
4.3
5.2
6.2
17.0
25.4
27.8
40-45/
55-60/
80
2025/2035/
2050
Increase in land use for
housing and transport (4) 2
ha pro Tag
−
120 3
126
129
87
73
…
30
2020
Species diversity and
landscape quality (5)
2015 = 100
76.5
76.6
74.8
71.9
67.6
63,4
4
…
100
2015
Intensity of goods transport
(11a)
1999 = 100
−
−
100
99.9
112.2
108,8
5
…
95
2020
Passenger transport
intensity (11b)
1999 = 100
−
−
100
96.0
93.9
91,7
5
…
80
2020
Share of railway transport
in goods transport
performance (11c)
%
−
−
16.5
17.2
17.8
18,2
5
…
25
2015
Share of inland freight
water transport in goods
transport performance
(11d)
%
−
−
13.5
13.8
10.4
9,7
5
…
14
2015
Nitrogen surplus (12a) 6
kg/ha
7
114.7
114.6
112.5
94.8
100.6
4
…
80
2010
−
−
2.9
−
5.6
6.0
…
20
kein
Zieljahr
100
66.0
55.7
53.5
43.0
42.5
…
30
2010
Energy productivity (1a)
Organic farming (12b)
Air pollution (13)
%
1990 = 100
130,3
* Update compared with the indicator report 2014.
1 Numbers in brackets according to the German Strategy for Sustainable Development.
2 Moving four-year average, reference in the relevant year and the preceding three years.
3 1996.
4 2011.
5 2012.
6 Moving three-year average, reference to the second year.
7 1991.
A set of sustainability indicators should remain as stable as possible, but cannot be
permanently defined. Depending on the knowledge base and political priorities, it may
change with time. The formulation of sustainability indicators and the creation of the
necessary integrated basic data are long-term processes, in which policy makers, scientists and statisticians must work hand-in-hand. The aim, embedding the sustainability indicators as far as possible in the accounting system, can be achieved in stages in
the mid-term:
•
Based on new methodological insights, new problems, wishes expressed by the
public and associations (e.g. in the so-called consultation process, which takes
place in conjunction with the respective progress report on the sustainability strategy) and with the perspective of better international comparability, in particular at
the European level, regular monitoring and adaptation of the indicator system is
foreseeable. When revising the indicators the aim should be that those indicators
for which interdependencies with the overall system play a role are derived as far
as possible from the accounting system, because of the advantages this presents.
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•
At the same time, when developing the accounting data set, statistics must react
to the data requirements resulting from the sustainability strategy. Based on accounting systems, this can often be achieved relatively easily and economically,
because the accounting framework provides the option to generate the required information by amalgamating data from different sources, originally not fully consistent or incomplete, by reformatting and estimates. Depending on the quality requirements on the data it would be desirable in the long term to more effectively
substantiate previous estimates in the framework of the accounting system using
appropriate primary surveys.
•
Another important objective is for policy makers and the institutions charged with
providing scientific policy advice to make greater use of the existing data inventory
within the framework of the sustainability strategy. In this context the environmental-economic accounting data are increasingly used in analyses (in addition to the
environmental and sustainability reports, e.g. including environmental economy
reports, most recently in 2011 5). Moreover, it is necessary to invest in the development of appropriate analysis instruments, such as suitable modelling approaches.
Supranationally and internationally the development and use of environmentaleconomic accounting data as the basis for sustainability indicator reporting is on the
advance. In Europe the European Commission assumes that in the long term 'better
integrated ecological, social and national accounting will form the basis for new indicators at the uppermost level'. The European initiative 'GDP – and Beyond: measuring
progress in a changing world' aimed at complementing calculations of gross domestic
product (GDP) as a measure of the economic performance of a national economy such
that it also reflects welfare and well-being aspects, and sustainable development. The
Commission encourages the development and use of environmental-economic accounting to aid in implementing this project. This proposal was also included in the
2009 Commission communication 'GDP – and Beyond: measuring progress in a changing world' 6. The Stiglitz, Sen and Fitoussi report 7 , compiled on behalf of the French
government in 2009, points in the same direction. It provided the impulse for further
indicator development activities to complement GDP for the three topics 'extension of
classical GDP', 'measuring quality of life' (both relative to the present) and 'measuring
sustainability and the environment' (relative to the future). In conjunction with this the
German Bundestag established a Study Commission in 2011 to compile a report on
Growth, Well-being, Quality of life – Paths to Sustainable Economic Activity and Social
Progress in the Social Market Economy, together with an accompanying indicator system (2013). 8
In the context of the European Statistical System (ESS) and on recommendation of the
Sponsorship Group on measuring progress, well-being and sustainable development, 9
priorities for developing statistics in the EU were defined in 2011 and it was recommended that sustainability and environmental indicators should be developed in the
future based on accounting, where possible. In July 2011 the European Parliament
passed an EU regulation for implementing environmental-economic accounting in all
5 Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (2011): Report on the Environmental Economy 2011. www.bmu.de
6 Commission of the European Community, Communication to the Council and the European Parliament
dated 20/08/2009: GDP – and Beyond: measuring progress in a changing world (COM(2009)433 final).
7 Stiglitz, J., Sen, A. & Fitoussi, J.P. (2009): Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic
Performance and Social Progress.
8 Enquete Kommission Wachstum, Wohlstand, Lebensqualität – Wege zu nachhaltigem Wirtschaften und
gesellschaftlichem Fortschritt in der Sozialen Marktwirtschaft (2013): Schlussbericht. Bundestag Printed
Paper 17/13300 dated 3/5/2013.
9 European Statistical System (2011): Sponsorship Group on measuring progress, well-being and sustainable development. Final report November 2011. EEA ESSC 2011/11/05/EN.
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member states 10. Initially, datasets for three modules (air emissions, material flow
accounting, environmental taxes) were to lead to harmonisation in national reporting
and to similar green accounts throughout the EU. In a second step, three further modules 11 were added in 2014 (environmental protection expenditure, environmental
goods and services sector, energy). According to the will of the parliamentarians, additional modules will follow (cf. Article 10 of the EU regulation). The first obligatory data
transmission for the first three modules was due in 2013. In Germany, a data inventory
in part over and above the requirements is already available for the second set of
modules (first data delivery in 2017). However, methodological adaptations are also
required in places. Together with the national indicator report on sustainable development they form the basis for substantiating the recommendations of the
Stiglitz/Sen/Fitoussi report on environmental sustainability indicators and for providing data. In environmental-economic accounting, particular emphasis is placed on
reflecting resource use and environmental pressure from a global perspective, which is
indispensable from an environmental point of view.
After several years of preparatory work, the United Nations Statistical Commission
adopted an international statistical standard for environmental-economic accounting
in February 2012 (SEEA Central Framework 12). In a second step, ecosystem accounting
is currently being developed. The work is being carried out – just as for the Central
Framework – under the aegis of the UN Committee of Experts on EnvironmentalEconomic Accounting (UNCEEA) and is supported by the London Group. The activities
of UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), who have been working on developing a Green Economy strategy since 2008, should also be mentioned. 13 The Green
Economy strategy was accepted at the Earth Summit Rio+20 in June 2012 in support of
sustainable development. It focuses on environmental and economic sustainability
aspects. 14 The OECD with its Green Growth initiative, passed in 2011, is moving in the
same direction. 15 Both strategies work with a set of indicators, whereby the OECD 16
strategy has already been compiled in more detail. The OECD expressly recommends
environmental-economic accounting as an optimal data basis for consistent reporting
on the Green Growth strategy.
10 Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2011 on European
environmental economic accounts. Official Journal of the European Union, L 192/2 dated 22/07/2011.
11 Regulation (EU) No. 538/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on European environmental economic accounts. Official Journal of the European Union, L 158/113 dated
27/05/2014.
12 European Commission/Food and Agriculture Organisation/International Monetary Fund/Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development OECD/United Nations UN,/World Bank (2012): System of Environmental Economic Accounting, Central Framework. White Cover Publication, pre-edited text.
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/envaccounting/White_cover.pdf
13 UNEP/United Nations Environment Programme (June 2012): Measuring Progress towards a Green Economy.
14 With a view to the Millennium Objectives expiring in 2015, it is also worth mentioning here the development of global sustainability indicators at the UN level, and their statistical measurement for the time
post-2015.
15 OECD (2011): Towards Green Growth. Also see the results of the practical trial in Germany: Federal
Statistical Office (2012), Test of OECD Green Growth indicator sets in Germany. www.destatis.de, Publications, Environmental-Economic Accounting
16 OECD (2014): Green Growth Indicators 2014. OECD Green Growth Studies.
Federal Statistical Office, Introduction in the Environmental-Economic Accounting, 2015
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