G7 Ministers Commit to SEEA Implementation

On 26-27 May, the G7 Ministers of Climate, Energy and the Environment met in Berlin to re-affirm their commitment to fighting the triple global crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Importantly, a component of the resulting communiqué included the SEEA. in the context of the biodiversity crisis and upcoming adoption of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, the G7 committed to “ensure implementation of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA), which includes a Central Framework (CF) and the recently adopted Ecosystem Accounting (EA).” In particular, the G7 noted the plan to use indicators derived from the SEEA EA in policy and decision-making and the intent to “provide international support for further development and implementation of SEEA-EA, including knowledge and capacity development and system requirements.”

The G7’s commitment comes at an important time. The SEEA EA is expected to play an important role in the monitoring framework of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and building global capacity to compile SEEA EA accounts will be key for successfully monitoring progress towards biodiversity targets. The G7’s commitment will also provide a big push to the newly adopted Implementation Strategy for the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting. In the strategy, the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (UNCEEA) has adopted a target of at least 60 countries implementing at least one account of the SEEA EA by 2025. 

For more information on the G7 meeting, and the full communiqué, please see: Meeting of the G7 Climate, Environment and Energy Ministers | Federal Government (bundesregierung.de).