National Accounts And The Environment

This book presents national environmental, or 'green' accounting as it has developed in Europe and other parts of the world. It introduces the most recent methods developed through the United Nations Statistical Department and other international organizations, but bridges the gap between the superficial treatment of environmental accounting in economics textbooks and environmental literature, on the one hand, and the highly technical manuals of international organizations, on the other. Joy Hecht begins with a history and introduction to national income accounting. The first part of her book explains how the environmental accounts build on the structure of the 1993 System of National Accounts. She then shows the UN approach to accounting applied to pollution, recycling, and the management of natural resources such as forests, minerals, and fisheries. The third section discusses how the accounts approach green GDP and other macroeconomic indicators. The book concludes by going beyond the UN structures to discuss other adjusted macroeconomic measures and how accounting data can be used to build them. National Environmental Accounting is a non-technical introduction to an increasingly important field. It is a must-read for anyone interested in how environmental accounts can help society move towards greater sustainability.

In recent years, analysts, researchers and environmental policy makers have been faced with a serious shortage of empirical data on environmental phenomena. In fact, the information gathered by various organisations has not yet been systematically classified into a consistent system of accounts. This book presents the results of a joint research effort by the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and Italy's Central Statistical Office (ISTAT) to design a system of accounts for natural and environmental resources. The resulting environmental accounts can be integrated with the existing system of national accounts, in order to estimate the so-called `green GDP' or `net national product' (NNP).

In order to really see the forest, what's the best way to count the trees? Understanding how the economy interacts with the environment has important implications for policy, regulatory, and business decisions. How should our national economic accounts recognize the increasing interest in and importance of the environment? Nature's Numbers responds to concerns about how the United States should make these measurements. The book recommends how to incorporate environmental and other non-market measures into the nation's income and product accounts. The panel explores alternative approaches to environmental accounting, including those used in other countries, and addresses thorny issues such as how to measure the stocks of natural resources and how to value non-market activities and assets. Specific applications to subsoil minerals, forests, and clean air show how the general principles can be applied. The analysis and insights provided in this book will be of interest to economists, policymakers, environmental advocates, economics faculty, businesses based on natural resources, and managers concerned with the role of the environment in our economic affairs.

This policy briefing series communicates the findings from nine workshops and three plenary meetings under the EVE programme. These showed the diversity of research currently being undertaken in the area of environmental values and their policy expression. The type of information relevant to the decision process extends from ecological functioning to moral values.

This book presents national environmental, or 'green' accounting as it has developed in Europe and other parts of the world. It introduces the most recent methods developed through the United Nations Statistical Department and other international organizations, but bridges the gap between the superficial treatment of environmental accounting in economics textbooks and environmental literature, on the one hand, and the highly technical manuals of international organizations, on the other. Joy Hecht begins with a history and introduction to national income accounting. The first part of her book explains how the environmental accounts build on the structure of the 1993 System of National Accounts. She then shows the UN approach to accounting applied to pollution, recycling, and the management of natural resources such as forests, minerals, and fisheries. The third section discusses how the accounts approach green GDP and other macroeconomic indicators. The book concludes by going beyond the UN structures to discuss other adjusted macroeconomic measures and how accounting data can be used to build them. National Environmental Accounting is a non-technical introduction to an increasingly important field. It is a must-read for anyone interested in how environmental accounts can help society move towards greater sustainability.

This book looks at some key economic aspects of the environment. Our planet is threatened by a wrong belief in a wrongly formulated growth. The term “economic growth” can only mean an increase in welfare but is often wrongly identified with production growth that may be destructive to the environment. The figure of standard national income (NI) or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is useful for many purposes but inadequate for environmental policy making. This book develops the concept of an environmentally Sustainable National Income (eSNI). eSNI is defined as the maximally attainable level of production, using the technology of the year under review, whereby the vital environmental functions (possible uses) of the not-human-made physical surroundings remain available for future generations. Judgement of environmental sustainability requires that both NI and eSNI are looked at jointly, alongside each other. The distance eΔ = NI – eSNI provides the relevant information about environmental sustainability. Calculations for the Netherlands for 1990-2015 provide a proof of concept. National statistical bureaus around the world are advised to provide this information for their own countries, so that policy making around the world can use sound information about the national economies and the global environment. Dr Roefie Hueting (1929) is an economist and was head of the department of environmental statistics at CBS Statistics Netherlands. Ir Bart de Boer (1947) is an electrotechnical engineer who applied systems analysis to environmental issues and sustainability.

Accounting for wealth and income is important. Individuals as well as nations wish to measure their capital stock and in particular their sustainable income which they may consume without living beyond their means and drawing down their assets. There are various kinds of capital: man-made, natural/environmental, and various forms of social capital. Most national accounting in the past has focused on the man-made capital. To be able to properly maintain it, one needs to be aware of and compute a capital consumption (or depreciation) allowance. This allowance is subtracted from a nation's gross domestic product (GDP) to arrive at a nation's net domestic product (NDP). If one only considers man-made capital, the NDP so computed is sustainable in the sense that one can consume that amount while maintaining the capital stock intact, which forms the basis for future production and income. The author deals with the question of how to better account for natural capital in an integrated way within the usual economic accounting framework. He describes the progress that has been made in recent years in conceptualizing and operationalizing the proposed approaches and measures. The author has made an important contribution to this topic in collaboration with the United Nations Statistical Agency (UNSTAT). The publication's goal is to be able to measure environmentally sustainable income.

Policy failures in environment and development have been blamed on frag mented and eclectic policies and strategies. The 1992 United Nations Con ference on Environment and Development, the 'Earth Summit' in Rio de Janeiro, called therefore for an integrated approach in planning and policy making to achieve long-term sustainable growth and development. The Con ference also recognized in its action plan, the Agenda 21, that integrated poli cies need to be supported by integrated information, notably requiring the implementation of integrated environmental and economic accounting by its member States. During the preparations for the Rio Summit, scientists and practitioners of national accounting met in a Special Conference on Environmental Account ing, organized by the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth (IARIW) in Baden, Austria. Their aim was to explore the need for and methodologies of adjusting national accounts for environmental reasons. National accountants had faced mounting criticism that conventional accounting neglected new scarcities in natural capital, as well as the social cost of environmental degradation. The result of their deliberations was a draft manual, later issued by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) as a handbook of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting.