An Accounting Approach for Climate Change Policy in Africa: Regional Training in Kenya

In conjunction with the second African Natural Capital Accounting Policy Forum, the UN Statisticas Division (UNSD) organized a Regional Training Workshop on an Accounting Approach to Climate Change Policy on 4-5 September in Nairobi, Kenya.   Climate change is one of the most pressing policy issues for many African countries given its wide-ranging impacts on well-being. High quality, consistent data on the environment-economy nexus is needed to inform effective pathways for addressing climate change and related issues. Many national statistical offices (NSOs) of countries in the region have responded to this need by compiling various SEEA accounts, including taking steps towards compiling energy and air emission accounts which are among the most relevant accounts for informing climate change.

The Regional Training focused on strengthening capacities of NSOs to produce and disseminate SEEA accounts relevant to informing the climate change agenda. Principally, four SEEA accounts are the most relevant to inform climate change policies. Apart from the traditional energy and carbon stock accounts, and land cover and forest accounts can provide information on GHG emissions from land cover and use change and deforestation. The training, which was centered around these four accounts, aimed to provide participants with a high-level overview of the accounts, their uses, modelling techniques, as well as hands-on practical experiences with compilation of the accounts. The Training created regional partnerships and exchanges between countries on their compilation experiences. The Training was attended by 28 statisticians from national statistical offices of 23 African countries.

Documents and presentations for this training can be found here.