Resource corner SEEA News and Notes: Issue 18

In this issue you will find articles on “nature jobs” in the UK, recommendations to ministries of finance on nature-related risks, the U.S. marine satellite account and more.

"Nature jobs" using environmental goods and services sector data: 2019

The UK Office for National Statistics currently produces annual estimates of the environmental goods and services sector (EGSS). There is a strong need to measure nature-related jobs in the UK to help design and monitor policy.

In this article, the authors identify the activities captured in the EGSS estimates that may be nature-related, based on the Classification of Environmental Protection Activities (CEPA). These include management of forest ecosystems, organic agriculture, in-house environmental activities and managerial activities of government bodies. The article provides initial estimates of employment, taken from EGSS, as well as extensive discussion on the methodology and how the EGSS framework is used and data gaps for further research.

Link to the original publication here.


Marine economy satellite account in the US

Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released the official 2020 Marine Economy Satellite Account (MESA) statistics, highlighting the marine economy’s contribution to the nation’s economy through 2020. The U.S. marine economy accounted for 1.7%, or $361 billion, of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), generated $610 billion in sales, and supported 2.2 million jobs in 2020. The publication offers national estimates for all ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes-related economic activity by major industry, helping us to understand the current state of the marine economy. These statistics offer valuable information to policy-makers and industry, helping them with decision-making and future investment planning in the marine environment.

Additional information is available at https://www.bea.gov/data/special-topics/marine-economy .


National Statistical Office of India (NSO, India) releases EnviStats-India Frequently Asked Questions

NSO India has released a document on the Frequently Asked Questions about the Environment Statistics and Environment Accounts titled ‘EnviStats India-FAQ’. The FAQs will help users better understand the accounts and will be updated on a regular basis in line with the subsequent publications. The publication can be downloaded from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation website here


Contas de ecossistemas: resultados do projeto NCAVES no Brasil [Ecosystem Accounts: Results of the project NCAVES in Brazil]

This report was published by IBGE in Portuguese as a compendium of the main results generated the six publications developed during the implementation of the project Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (NCAVES) in Brazil.

Between 2017 and 2021, the project supported the production of  "Environmental Economic Accounts for Water",  “Ecosystem Accounts: land use in Brazilian biomes", "Ecosystem Accounts: endangered species in Brazil", "Ecosystem accounts: condition of water bodies", "Valuation of the ecosystem service of blue water supply" and  "Accounts of non-timber forest products" and their respective valuation study were also prepared within the scope of the project and published in the IBGE dedicated webpage to ecosystem accounts.  These publications are also available in the SEEA Knowledge Base.

Read the report published by IBGE in Portuguese here and press release here.   The report Ecosystem Accounts: Results of the project NCAVES in Brazil (in English) issued on 2021 can be found here.


Using ocean accounting towards an integrated assessment of ecosystem services and benefits within a coastal lake

This study demonstrates the utility of ocean accounts in an integrated understanding of a coastal lake in New South Wales, Australia. It provides: (i) an overview of the account compilation strategy: (ii) accounts of the extent and provisioning of services for three coastal ecosystems and the ocean economy and (iii) potential drivers of change identified within the accounts.

Accounts were compiled between the years 2010 and 2020 inclusive, with several accounts providing a spatially explicit understanding of ecosystems and their services.

Access the study here: https://oneecosystem.pensoft.net/article/81855/


Applying the SEEA EA framework at catchment scale to develop ecosystem extent and condition accounts

This case study presents SEEA EA pilot findings at catchment scale in Ireland. The catchment forms the basis at which reporting is carried out under the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). This study combines datasets, such as those gathered for reporting under the EU WFD and the EU Habitats Directive, to develop the SEEA EA accounts. This demonstrates how to make effective use of existing, comprehensive datasets by aligning them to develop their further use towards more integrated environmental management.

This work has been carried out as part of the INCASE (Irish Natural Capital Accounting for Sustainable Environments) project, funded under the EPA Research Programme 2014-2020. (www.incaseproject.com)

Find the article here:  https://oneecosystem.pensoft.net/article/65582/


Ecosystem condition underpins the generation of ecosystem services: an accounting perspective

There is a strong linkage between the condition of ecosystems and the services they provide. Concrete applications undertaken under the “Integrated system for Natural Capital Accounts” project demonstrate at which stage a direct connection can occur between ecosystem condition and ecosystem services accounting. The paper utilizes case studies on flood control and crop pollination to show the linkage between condition and services. In the discussion, a simple proposal is drafted to facilitate a possible procedure for those practitioners interested in having condition and ecosystem service accounts operationally linked.

The nine ecosystem services assessed and valued during the second phase of the KIP INCA project may be used as additional examples (ref. https://ecosystem-accounts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/).

Find the article here.


The Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action Publishes Report on Nature-Related Risks for Ministries of Finance (MoFs).  

The Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action recently published the report “An Overview of Nature-related risks and potential policy actions for Ministries of Finance: Bending the curve of Nature Loss”, prepared at the request of the coalition under the Helsinki Principle 5 (HP5) Workstream on ‘mobilizing private finance for climate action’.

The report focuses on economic and financial risks of nature loss and urges MoFs to start improving their understanding of the natural capital assets they are managing and the nature-related risks to which they are exposed. To support MoFs in this endeavor, the report stresses the implementation of natural capital accounting using the SEEA  as a  critical policy lever to strategically manage their country’s natural capital assets in support of sustainable economic growth (pp. 56-57).

More about the report here

Download the report here

Coalition website:  www.financeministersforclimate.org


FSB and IMF published the report “G20 Data Gaps Initiative (DGI-2) Progress Achieved, Lessons Learned, and the Way Forward”

The  Financial Stability Board (FSB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently published a report to mark the completion of the second phase of the G20 Data Gaps Initiative (DGI-2). This report also lays out priorities for a new initiative (DGI-3) led by the IMF to address data gaps relating to emerging policy needs.

The four main statistical and data priorities under the DGI-3 workplan are: (i) climate change; (ii) household distributional information; (iii) fintech and financial inclusion; and (iv) access to private sources of data and administrative data, and data sharing. The DGI-3 recommendations are expected to be implemented within five years after the launch.

More information: https://www.imf.org/en/News/Seminars/Conferences/g20-data-gaps-initiative