System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting ( SEEA ) is a standard developed by the United Nations Statistical Office in 1993 to record the ecological state of economies . This SEEA standard is intended to enable the state of the environment and the comparability of the interrelationships between the environment and the economy between nations. The standard was revised and adopted by the United Nations in 2012.
The framework follows the accounting structures of the System of National Accounts (SNA) and uses concepts and definitions. Tabular standards and classifications used to integrate environmental data and economic statistics. The statistical data are used by politics, science and civil society.
The revised standard consists of three parts: first of all, the Central Framework. This first international standard for economic-environmental accountability was drawn up by the UN Statistical Commission. The SEEA Central Framework is available as a PDF brochure. Second, the SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (EEA) and SEEA Applications and Extensions. The subsystems of the SEEA framework relate to specific resources or sectors, including above all energy, water, fisheries, land and environmental systems and, furthermore, agriculture.
In August 2011 the EU regulation on environmental and economic accounts came into force. In Germany, the Environmental and Economic Accounting (UGR) (English: "Integrated Environmental Accounts", "Green Accounting") is compiled by the Federal Statistical Office and the statistical offices of the federal states. These surveys follow in coordination with the SEEA framework.
With UGR, the interaction between the extraction from nature and the use of natural resources for the economy is recorded and documented as period-related flows. Economic activities in relation to nature are recorded from two perspectives: on the one hand, to what extent a natural resource is used, and on the other hand, which use is made of which quantities of such a resource; this also includes the shares from foreign parts of the value chain. In this way, the inventory and changes in natural resources are recorded and assessed in monetary terms.
UN publications on SEEA can be downloaded.
Individual evidence
Web links
- SEEA - entry in Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon
- Federal Environment Agency Austria: environmental accounts (environmental policy and legal basis (SEEA), structure and creation, types of accounts, areas of application)