London Group on Environmental Accounting

Purpose:

To play a leadership role in defining international best practices in the theory and practice of environmental accounting within the framework of the System of National Accounts. To provide a forum for the sharing of national and international expertise in this field. To encourage the adoption of best practices in the field by promoting the results of the Group's efforts via proceedings volumes, concepts and methods manuals, operational manuals and other means.

Year organized:

1994

Participants:

Austria, Australia, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, India, Japan, Korea (Republic of), Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, European Environment Agency, Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Statistics Division, World Bank.

Meetings:

March 1994, London, England
March 1995, Washington, D.C., USA
May 1996, Stockholm, Sweden
June 1997, Ottawa, Canada
May 1998, Fontevraud, France
November 1999, Canberra, Australia
May 2001 Voorburg, the Netherlands
November 2003, Rome, Italy
September 2004, Copenhagen, Denmark
June 2006, New York, USA
March 2007, Pretoria, South Africa

Topics considered:

Broadly speaking, the topics covered by the Group to date include:
(a) Development of natural resource accounts in physical and monetary terms for mineral and energy, forests, water, fish and land
(b) Development and use of physical flow accounts and hybrid flow accounts
(c) Environmental protection expenditure accounts, including other environmentally related transactions (e.g., environmental taxes, property rights)
(d) Comparison of various methods for the valuation of natural resource stocks and environmental degradation
(e) Depletion of natural resources in physical and monetary terms and its proper treatment in the System of National Accounts
(f) Environmental alternatives and adjustments to GDP and their pros and cons
(g) Use of social accounting matrices for environmental accounting
(h) Applications and policy uses of environmental and economic accounts

Products:

System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water (SEEAW) 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)

Handbook of National Accounting: Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting 2003 (SEEA-2003)

Papers and proceedings volumes

(a) Statistics Canada, 1994, National accounts and the environment: papers and proceedings from a conference held in London, England, March 1994
(b) U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 1995, Second meeting of the London Group on Natural Resource and environmental Accounting: conference papers
(c) Statistics Sweden, 1996, Third meeting of the London Group on Natural Resource and Environmental Accounting: proceedings volume
(d) Statistics Canada, 1998, National Accounts and the Environment: Papers and Proceedings from a Conference, Ottawa, Canada, June 17-20, 1997
(e) Institut Français de l'Environnement (IFEN), 1999, Fifth Meeting of the London Group on Environmental Accounting, Fontevraud, France, May 25-29, 1998, Proceedings and Papers
(f) Statistics Denmark, 2005, Ninth Meeting of the London Group on Environmental Accounting, Copenhagen, Denmark, September 22-24, 2004, Proceedings and papers

Planned activities:

The Un Statistical Commission at its thirty-sixth session in March 2005 recommended the elevation of the SEEA-2003 to the level of an international statistical standard under the auspices of the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (UNCEEA). Given its expertise and leading role in environmental-economic accounting, the London Group has accepted the request of the 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 work programme. The Group also continues to provide a forum for the sharing of national and international expertise and experience in this field.

The London Group's priority objectives in the next years are:
(a) Continue the theoretical and practical development of environmental-economic accounting in particular in those components that will allow the elevation of the SEEA-2003 to the level of an international statistical standard;
(b) Provide a forum to share experiences among countries and international organizations;
(c) Inform policy debates at the national and international levels.
As a mode of operation, the Group continues to use working groups on specific methodological issues to meet its objectives.

Point of contact: