Australian Perspective: EGSS Developments and Application Issues

Peter WilliamsAssistant Director, Centre of Environment Statistics(P) +61 (0)2 6252 5758 (E) peter.r.williams@abs.gov.au

Measuring Progress on the "Greening" of the Economy: Policies and Practices,Geneva, 14-15 May 2014

Technical workshop jointly organised by UNEP, Eurostat, EEA and ILO

Outline of PresentationDevelopments • Overview of environmental- economical

accounts the ABS produce.• EGSS related outputs.Application Issues• Challenges relating to EGSS outputs.• Future directions.

ABS Environmental- Economic Accounts

• Organises information

• Stocks and flows• Physical and

monetary measures

• Benefit and beneficiaries

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/envaccounting/seeaRev/SEEA_CF_Final_en.pdf

Account type Year First published

Frequency or status

Reference Years for which accounts are availableStock accounts Flow accounts

Physical Monetary Physical Monetary

NATIONAL BALANCE SHEET

1995 Annual from 1995

1988-89 to 2011-12

1988-89 to 2011-12

-land-minerals-energy-timber-fish

2012 Experimental 2000-01, 2005-06 to 2009-10

FISH 1999 Occasional 1996-97 1996-97 ENERGY

1996 Annual from 2011

1988-89 to 2011-12

1988-89 to 2011-12

1993-94 - 1996-97; 2004-05;2006-07;

2008-09 to 2010-11;

2004-052009-10;

MINERALS1998 Occasional 1985 to 1996 1992-93,

1993-94

WATER

2000 Annual from 2010

1993-94 - 1996-97; 2000-01;2004-05;

2008-09 to 2010-11;

2003-04; 2004-05;2008-09 to 2011-

12

LAND COVER AND LAND USE VALUES (BY STATE)*

2011 Annual from 2011

2011; 2012; 2013 2012; 2013 2013 2013

WASTE2012 Annual from

2012 2009-10 2009-10

GHG EMISSIONS - EMBEDDED IN FINAL DEMAND

2012 Experimental 2008-09; 2009-10

* Land cover and use accounts are prepared for each state on a rotating schedule, with each state covered once in three years.

Australian Environmental-Economic Accounts

2014• Brings together existing

accounts into an annual publication• Water, energy, waste,

environmental assets, CO2 emissions, taxes, and land cover

• Time series• Tables and indicators

• Present accounts with minimal analysis and interpretation

• Special article

EGSS Related Outputs

Current• Water Accounts• Energy Accounts • Waste Accounts Future • Environment protection expenditure and

resource management.• Renewable Energy Employment

(Component of Green Jobs)

Water and Energy Accounts• Considerable policy interest and concern (within Australia). • Presents information on the supply and use of water

(MJ)/energy (PJ) in the entire Australian economy in both physical and monetary terms.

• Good example of integrating physical and monetary volumes within the economy. e.g. price paid per ML of water or measuring resource productivity.

Challenges• Accounts don’t have a good measure on capturing

investment technology or expenditure on service. • Don’t value monetary component of renewable energy. • Potential to add EPE/EGSS in the future.

Waste Accounts

• Waste Account- presents generation of waste, the destination of waste to landfills or to recycling facilities, and the supply of recycled materials to the economy, including the related financial flows.

• Parts of accounts belong within both EP and RM domains.

Information Paper (June 2014)- Environment protection expenditure and resource management

• Based on SEEA and the European System for the Collection of Economic Information on the Environment (SERIEE) frameworks.

• Considering local (Australian) concerns and data availability, the following Environmental Expenditure categories will be presented: – Waste water management– Solid waste management– Air and climate protection– Water management– Research and development– Other resource management

• Resource intensive exercise:– no systematic data source– required large amount of data scavenging (e.g. budget papers, annual

reports)

Renewable Energy Employment

• Externally funded project.

PROJECT• Phase 1

– Concepts study (internal paper due July 2014)• Defining jobs• Defining Industry or activity• Defining supply chain concordance with SEEA CF

• Phase 2– Build renewable jobs statistics (due Nov 2014)

• Create frame• Use administrative data (income tax) for number of paid

jobs by selected categories (location, type of producer, etc)

Renewable Energy Employment

• Discoveries so far– Industry classification and primary activities has some

information– Research and Development classification– Imports and export classifications (goods importers and

exporters)

• Challenges– Translating “primary purpose” and “producers” (SEEA)

to supply chain (user request)– Occupation classification not well established for green

jobs

EGSS Application Issues

• The scope of EGSS is environmental activities, i.e. economic activities whose primary purpose is to reduce or eliminate pressures on the environment or to make more efficient use of natural resources.

• However, in some areas the scope of EGSS is unclear. For example should the construction or operation of ocean desalination plants be included? (the primary purpose and technical nature of the product is debatable)

• The choices made have a big impact on the data.

• To operationalise, EGSS may require a clear definitional list (i.e. what is in and what is out).

EGSS Application Issues

• Shrinking budgets and resources

• Challenge to maintain current environmental program

Future Directions

• In Australia, Green Economy/EGSS not a current policy focus.

• ABS 2017, modernisation of business processes and information management.

However

• We need to be prepared for policy changes.

• Need to build and learn on what has been done.

Thanks for your attention