System of Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA)

The System of Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA) is the statistical framework that provides internationally agreed concepts, definitions, classifications, accounting rules and standard tables for producing internationally comparable statistics on the environment and its relationship with the economy. The SEEA framework follows a similar accounting structure as the System of National Accounts (SNA) and uses concepts, definitions and classifications consistent with the SNA in order to facilitate the integration of environmental and economic statistics.

The SEEA is a system for organizing statistical data for the derivation of coherent indicators and descriptive statistics to monitor the interactions between the economy and the environment and the state of the environment to better inform decision-making. The SEEA does not propose any single headline indicator. Rather it is a multi-purpose system that generates a wide range of statistics and indicators with many different potential analytical applications. It is a flexible system in that its implementation can be adapted to countries' priorities and policy needs while at the same time providing a common framework and common concepts, terms and definitions. The SEEA brochure provides additional information on what environmental accounting has to offer.

A multi-year process of revision to the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts was initiated by the United Nations Statistical Commission. The revised SEEA consists of three parts: the central framework consisting of agreed concepts, definitions classifications, accounting rules and tables; experimental accounts for ecosystems and extensions and applications of the SEEA. Subsystems of the SEEA framework elaborate on specific resources or sectors, including: Energy, Water, Fisheries, Land and Ecosystems, and Agriculture. These 'sub-systems' are fully consistent with the over-arching SEEA, but provide further details on specific topics and try to build bridges between the accounting community and the community of experts in each specific subject area.