Using the SEEA in support of climate change policies in Asia and the Pacific

On 11-14 April 2023, the UN Statistics Division (UNSD) and the UN Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (UNSIAP), with the support of the Office of the Director-General for Policy Planning on Statistical Policy, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of the Government of Japan, held a regional workshop in Chiba on using the SEEA in support of climate change policy. This workshop took place under the Development Account project, “Environmental-Economic Accounting for Evidence-Based Policy in Africa and Asia”, which aims to address the technical and institutional barriers to the establishment of routinely produced environmental-economic accounts at the national level by national statistical offices.

More than 20 people from 11 different countries in the Asia Pacific region participated in this hands-on workshop, and participants came from national statistical offices and line ministries. During the workshop, UNSD and SIAP provided an overview of how the SEEA can provide policy-relevant data for the 2030 Agenda and beyond, through energy, air emission, carbon and ecosystem accounts. The workshop included sessions dedicated to hands-on compilation exercises, deriving climate change indicators, good practices in dissemination and sharing country experiences. In particular, representatives from Bhutan, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, and the Philippines shared their experiences in compiling climate change relevant SEEA accounts. In addition, the workshop focused on how to compile energy and air emission accounts from existing data, such as energy balances and air emission inventories. Finally, UNSD provided an introduction to the new physical energy flow account and air emission account global questionnaires, as UNSD and OECD are beginning data collection for these accounts for the first time this year.

The workshop concluded with a discussion on how countries would move forward with SEEA implementation in support of climate change policy when they returned home. Presentations and exercises from the workshop can be found on the event page.