Global Assessment of Environment Statistics and Environment-Economic Accounting

1. Global Assessment of Environment Statistics and Environment-Economic Accounting Regional Workshop on Water Accounting Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic16-18 June 2007 Ilaria DiMatteo United Nations Statistics Division

2. Outline • Introduction of the Global Assessment • Overview of the global status in environment statistics and environmental accounting • Scope of the programmes • Factors impeding for the development and compilation of the environment statistics and environmental accounting • General summary of ECLAC countries’ reply to the global assessment • Follow up survey on water and energy

3. Introduction of the Global Assessment • Request by the UNCEEA • Global assessment in two phases • Information collection items in phase I • Part A, environment statistics • Part B, environmental-economic accounting • Report to the UN Statistical Commission http://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/doc07/Analysis_SC.pdf

4. Overview of the global status in environment Statistics and environmental accounting Country response: • 97 countries responded to Part A, 88 (91%) countries have environment statistics programmes; • 70% of 88 countries are planning to expand environment statistics. • 99 countries responded to Part B, 49 (49%) countries have the environmental accounting programme • about 20 countries not compiling environmental accounts have plans to start with their compilation in the near future

5. Scope of Environment Statistics Programmes Six areas most commonly covered areas of environment statistics: • Water – the most commonly compiled statistics in both developed and developing regions • Air • Forest • Land • Energy • Agriculture

6. Scope of the Environmental Accounting Programmes The accounts most commonly compiled: • Energy and Emission accounts • Environmental Protection Expenditure Accounts • Water – most compiled account in developing countries • Forest • Material Flow/Waste Accounts • Mineral Asset Accounts

7. Factors impeding the development of environment statistics • Lack of human resources (72%) • Lack of financial resources (60%) • Lack of institutional set-up/coordination (51%) • Lack of access to training material (32%) • Lack of interest by the users (15%)

8. Main impeding factors for the development of environmental accounting • Lack of human resources (69%) • Lack of financial resources (68%) • Availability of data (61%) • Quality of data (52%) • Lack of institutional set-up/coordination (39%) • Lack of interest by the users (34%) • Lack of access to training material (31%)

9. Factors impeding the compilation of environment accounts • Availability of data (88%) • Quality of data (64%) • Lack of human resources (62%) • Lack of financial resources (55%) • Lack of institutional set-up/coordination (29%) • Lack of interest by the users (26%) • Lack of access to training material (21%)

10. Summary of ECLAC countries’ reply to the Global Assessment • Among 33 Latin American and the Caribbean ECLAC countries, 19 (58%) replied to the Global Assessment • 19 responding countries were: Argentina, Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic (Oficina Nacional de Estadistica, and Central Bank), Ecuador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay.

11. ECLAC countries environment statistics programmes mainly cover Among the 19 responding countries, 14 countries have environment statistics programmes. • Water (12 countries) • Air (10 countries) • Forest (11 countries) • Land (11 countries) • Energy (12 countries) • Agriculture (12 countries)

12. Problems encountered in ECLAC countries in developing and compiling the environment statistics Among the 19 responding countries, 13 have indicated similar problems encountered by other countries: • lack of financial and human resources • lack of institutional set-up/coordination • lack of access to training material • availability of data • quality of data

13. ECLAC countries environmental accounting programmes mainly cover Among the 19 responding countries, 4 countries --- Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico --- are compiling environmental accounts Colombia: Water, mineral asset, energy and emission, forest, material flows, environmental protection expenditure. Dominican Republic: Water Guatemala : Forest, Water Mexico: Water, mineral asset, energy and emission, forest, land and ecosystem, environmental protection expenditure.

14. Problems encountered in ECLAC countries in developing and compiling the environmental accounts For countries with environmental accounting programmes, similar problems are singled out as encountered by other countries: • lack of financial and human resources • lack of institutional set-up/coordination • lack of access to training material • availability of data • quality of data

15. Follow up surveys • Energy Statistics and Balances • Energy and Air Emission Accounts • Water Statistics and Accounts

16. Conclusions • Environment statistics and environmental accounts are established and expanding components of national statistical programs • While environmental accounting is new, nearly half (49%) of the responding countries have an environmental accounting programme. Another 20% are planning on compiling environmental accounts • Water statistics and accounts are priority areas • Lack of human and financial resources impede the implementation of both environmental statistics and accounting programmes