Natural Capital Accounting: Connecting the Pillars of Sustainability

As a side event for the 50th United Nations Statistical Commission, the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting will host a meeting to present: 1) the ongoing works at the international level to advance the methodological development of the SEEA EEA, 2) gather most recent experiences from selected countries, and 3) provide an opportunity to discuss how the SEEA EEA can support the Post-2020 Agenda for Biodiversity.  

Natural capital accounting is at the core of UNSD's work on incorporating natural capital into national accounts to reveal the interactions of economic activity with the environment. As a way to support the methodological development of the SEEA EEA and implementation of ecosystem accounting, the UNSD is currently working on the EU-funded Natural Capital Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (NCAVES) project, which aims to assist five partner countries (Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa) in advancing ecosystem accounting under the SEEA framework. There is an increasing evidence that natural capital accounting based on the SEEA EEA can inform the sustainable development policy. In 2020, the Parties to the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) are expected to adop a new Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2021-2030. The post-2020 Strategic Plan provides a key opportunity for adopting natural capital accounting and developing indicators derived from the accounts so as to integrate ecosystem and biodiversity into sustainable development planning and realize a full set of operational indicators to track progress towards the global targets established by the Agenda for Sustainable Development 2020. 

Agenda

1. Opening remark (5 mins) - Elliott Harris, Chief Economist of the United Nations and Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, DESA
2. EU Strategy on Ecosystem Accounting and engagement with the National Accounts (5 mins) - Mariana Kotzeva, Director-General of EUROSTAT
3. Overview of the SEEA EEA and its revision process (5 mins) - Bert Kroese, Deputy Director General of CBS and Chair of UNCEEA
4. Experiences from selected countries in Natural Capital Accounting (40 mins) ▪ Brazil – Roberto Olinto, former President, Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) ▪ India – Shri Pravin Srivastava, Chief Statistician of India, National Statistical Organization, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
5. Panel discussion – Natural Capital Accounting for policy and the Post-2020 Agenda for Biodiversity (35 mins, facilitated by Bert Kroese) - Uganda – Dr. Sam Mugume Koojo, Principal Statistician, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development - Canada - Andre Loranger, Assistant Chief Statistician, Economic Statistics,  Statistics Canada.
6. Speakers from the country presenters

Date: Tuesday, 5 March 2019

Time: 8:15AM - 9:30AM

Venue: Conference Room 4 (UNHQ), New York

Contact: seea@un.org

Please find below the relevant material: 

• Cover Note
• Presentation slides:
  • Environmental Economic-Accounting in India
  • Natural Capital Accounting: Connecting the PIllars of Sustainability 
  • Natural Capital Accounting: Ugada Experience