London Group on Environmental Accounting

The London Group on Environmental Accounting is a city group created in 1993 to allow practitioners to share their experience of developing and implementing environmental accounts linked to the economic accounts of the System of National Accounts. It convened its first meeting in March 1994 in London, England. The name derives from the city of its first meting.

The London Group is an informal group of experts primarily from national statistical agencies but also international organizations. Participation by representatives is voluntary. The London Group generally meets annually. The meetings provide a forum for review, comparison and discussion of work underway by participants towards development of environmental accounts. The meetings are hosted voluntarily by participants. A 'Papers and Proceedings' volume has been compiled after most of the meetings.

The London Group on Environmental Accounting has played over the years a leading role in advancing the methodologies on environmental-economic accounting and in providing a forum for sharing national and international expertise in the field. The most notable accomplishments of the London Group have been its contribution to the Handbook of National Accounting: Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting 2003 (SEEA-2003) and, more recently, to the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water (SEEAW), which was adopted at the thirty-eighth session of the United Nations Statistical Commission as an international statistical standard (see draft report of the UN Statistical Commission).

Given its expertise and leading role in environmental-economic accounting, the London Group has accepted the request of the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (UNCEEA) to develop a list of issues for the research agenda of the revision of the SEEA-2003 and solve significant number of those issues as part of its programme of work. The London Group has also reviewed its governance structure to meet the UNCEEA request, a proposal of which will be discussed at the 11th London Group meeting in Pretoria, 26-30 March 2007.

The Chair of the London Group is Mr. Mark de Haan of Statistics Netherlands.