Resource corner SEEA News and Notes. Issue 24

In this issue you will find Australia Water Accounts, Canada , UK Natural Capital Accounts and GHG emissions, Canada’s Census of the Environment, Mexico’s environmental accounts, Eurostat new releases on AEA and PEFA, and more.

Recent ABS publications

Water Account, Australia, 2021-22

Released on 19 October, this publication includes information on a) physical and monetary supply and use of water in the Australian economy; b) Water-related indicators including consumption, use, expenditure, intensity and productivity; c) industry water use splits for states/territories; and d) water supply industry highlights.

Links to the publication and data downloads:

• Main publication page:  Water Account, Australia, 2021-22 financial year | Australian Bureau of Statistics (abs.gov.au)
• Data downloads:  Water Account, Australia, 2021-22 financial year | Australian Bureau of Statistics (abs.gov.au)

Recent Stats Canada publications

Canada’s Census of Environment: Measuring settled area expansion, 2010 to 2020

Statistic of Canada published in October 2023 the 2010 and 2020 Census of settled area expansion.

Canada’s Census of Environment: Urban greenness, 2023

Statistic of Canada published in November 2023 the 2023 Census of Urban greenness

Canada’s Census of Environment: Resource-based communities, 2016 and 2021

Statistic of Canada published in December 2023 the 2016 and 2021 Census of Resources-based communities.

Environmental taxes in Canada, 2020 

Statistic of Canada published in December 2023 annual estimates of environmental taxes.

Recent ONS Publications

UK natural capital accounts: 2023

Estimates for the financial and societal value of natural resources to people in the UK were released on 27 November 2023.  UK natural capital accounts include the extent of habitats in the UK, ecosystem services in both physical and monetary terms and the total asset value for all ecosystem services for the year 2021.

Publication and data: All data related to UK natural capital accounts: 2023 (ons.gov.uk)

Other ONS publications can be found in the following links:

• Greenhouse gas emissions, UK: provisional estimates, 2022
• Measuring UK greenhouse gas emissions 
• Experimental estimates of quarterly greenhouse gas emissions (residence basis), UK: Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2023 
• Jobs in high emissions industries 
• Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: climate change 
• A million fewer people are gaining health benefits from nature since 2020 
• Business Insights and Impact on the UK economy: Wave 95, including climate change concern and considerations, and actions and barriers to reducing carbon emissions 
• Climate-related mortality, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) 

INEGI published the environmental-economic accounts, Mexico, 2022

Results are published here.

Recent Eurostat publications

Guidance note on ecosystem extent accounts

Eurostat published on 19 December 2023 a technical note to provide guidance to EU compilers with the compilation of ecosystem extent accounts to meet the (future) reporting obligation (amended Regulation (EU) 691/2011)1 and help harmonise compilation approaches across the EU. It also provides insights relevant for more detailed voluntary reporting of EU ecosystem types. It is primarily focused on national scale compilation but may also be helpful at sub-national scales. The guidance note is specific for Europe: focussing on European ecosystem types and connecting to European ecosystem classifications and datasets.  The guidance note follows the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting 2021 (SEEA EA).

Air emissions accounts (AEA) for the year 2022 (Eurostat, 2023)  

As per European directives, Eurostat published on 20 December 2023 the air emissions accounts for the year 2022 of EU-27 member states and the aggregated countries.

The AEA data including the early estimates for greenhouse gas emissions for reference year 2021 (flagged as Eurostat estimate) were published on 20 December 2023:

1. Air emissions accounts by NACE Rev. 2 activity [env_ac_ainah_r2]
2. Air emissions accounts totals bridging to emission inventory totals [env_ac_aibrid_r2]
3. Air emissions intensities by NACE Rev. 2 activity [env_ac_aeint_r2].

Three Statistics Explained articles related to the AEA were up-dated and are available online: Greenhouse gas emission statistics - air emissions accounts, Air pollution statistics - air emissions accounts, and Industrial emission statistics.

On a  related article, published by Eurostat, the European economy emissions in 2022 fall 22% compared with 2006.

Physical Energy flow Accounts (PEFA) for the year 2021 (Eurostat, 2023)

The PEFA data for the year 2021 of EU27 member states and aggregated countries

Data was published on 21 Dec 2023:

1. Energy supply and use by NACE Rev. 2 activity [env_ac_pefasu]
2. Key indicators of physical energy flow accounts by NACE Rev. 2 activity [env_ac_pefa04]
3. Physical energy flow accounts totals bridging to energy balances totals [env_ac_pefa05].

In early January 2024, Eurostat up-dated the Statistics Explained article related to PEFA, ‘Energy use by businesses and households - statistics

European Commission Joint Research Center (JRC) publications

Urban Ecosystem accounts following the SEEA EA standard: A pilot application in Europe

Report on an integrated System for Natural Capital Accounting in the EU (INCA)

This report published by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in 2023  presents a pilot SEEA EA urban ecosystem account for EU-27 and EFTA Member States in 2018. It discusses challenges for the development of urban ecosystem accounts and potential solutions. The outputs illustrate where re-greening efforts should be applied and discusses feasibility and potential issues of targets. The report also presents key insights to operationalise SEEA EA for urban ecosystem accounts. It provides an instructive guiding example to national and local authorities starting to draft their own urban ecosystem accounts.

Towards an ecosystem-based approach in marine ecosystem accounting

The aim of this report is to highlight the relevance of implementing an ecosystem-based approach in the marine ecosystem accounting. The report focus on seagrass ecosystems, with a case study in the Mediterranean Sea, explaining their importance as essential (vulnerable) ecosystems with several key roles, from biodiversity hotspots to climate change mitigation, and highlighting their characteristics, condition, threats, and potential values of ecosystem services fundamental for the society and economy. Finally, the report summarizes the main methodologies applied for seagrass restoration (section 3) and include a brief narrative on the marine ecosystem accounting (section 4) as pivotal implementation of conservation, protection and restoration actions in the framework of European legislations.

This report published by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in 2023.

Other publications

BC3 Working Paper: An interoperability strategy for the next generation of SEEA accounting

As part of its Working Paper series BC3 released in November 2023 an updated interoperability strategy for the upcoming generation of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA). This strategic initiative seeks to propel the vision of the semantic web forward and elevate open science to unprecedented levels.

Ensuring interoperability among the data and models underpinning SEEA is pivotal for advancing sustainability science and practice. This fosters the swift integration and sharing of new scientific data and models, delivering benefits to NSOs and the broader scientific community. The ARIES Network, which powers the ARIES for SEEA Explorer, presents a clear path toward achieving interoperability, offering advantages to NSOs, scientific communities, and policymakers.