Transcript Indicators and SEEAW - United Nations Economic and Social

Indicators
and SEEAW
Training Session on the System of Environmental-Economic
Accounting for Water (SEEAW) for the Arab Gulf Countries
August 25-28, 2008
UN House- Beirut-Lebanon
Michael Vardon
United Nations Statistics Division
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Outline
• Audience for indicators
• Relationship of environment to economy
• Pressure-State-Response (Driving forces)
• Key questions
• Indicators
• Characteristics
• SEEAW indicators
• SEEAW supplementary tables and information
• Communication and analysis
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Audiences for information
Public
Politicians
Indicators
Accounting
SNA, SEEA, SEEAW
Researchers
Policy Makers
Strategic planners
Micro data
Indicators are part of communicating information
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Need to communicate complex information
about the relationships between the
environment and the economy
• Environment provides
• Economic resources to production
process (e.g. minerals, timber, water,
energy)
• Non-economic resources to production
process as well as other uses for mankind
• Environment receives wastes from the
economy
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A model of the relationships between the
environment and economy: Pressure – State – Response
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Concerns over the level impact the
economy is having on environment
• Depletion of natural resource
(e.g. oil, forests, biodiversity)
• Degradation of natural
resources (e.g. air and water
pollution)
• Potentially catastrophic effects
(e.g. climate change)
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Questions
• Are environmental endowments being used
responsibly.
• Is their use posing a treat to economic
development now?
• Will their unchanged use into the future
pose future threats?
• Who benefits from use, who bares the
cost of use?
What indicators can help answer the questions,
simply and accurately?
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Indicators need data
• Much of the information needed to address these
questions can be drawn from the standard SEEAW
tables
• To answer some questions additional information
is needed. In some cases the standard tables can be
expanded to include more detailed industry
breakdowns or a lower level of geographic
reference (e.g. province instead of state)
• Some of these data can be drawn from the
supplementary SEEAW tables
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Supplementary tables
• SEEAW identified 12 supplementary tables
• Most are expansions of the standard tables
or re-presentations of some of the data in
the standard tables (e.g. the matrix of flows
within the economy)
• Two new tables are added
• Water quality accounts
• Social indicators – Access to water and
sanitation (the MDG indicators)
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Further information
• The international recommendations for
water statistics currently being drafted by
the UN will include other data items, not
included in the water accounts
• The additional data items will support
indicators as well as help in the production
of the water accounts and the analysis of
data in the water accounts
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Characteristics of indicators
• Focus on outcomes
• Have an unambiguous 'good' direction
• Be supported by timely data of good quality
• Be available as a time series
• Be sensitive to changes
• Be summary in nature;
• Be capable of disaggregation
• Be interpreted easily by the general reader.
Adapted from Measures of Australia’s Progress 2002
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/94713ad445ff1425ca25682000192af2/aa16f6e99c3078bfca256bdc001223f6!OpenDocument
.
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Millennium Development Goals
Official list of MDG indicators
after the 2007 revision
http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Host.aspx?Content=Indicators/OfficialList.htm
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
7.4 Proportion of total water resources used NEW INDICATOR
7.7 Proportion of population using an improved drinking water source
(formally target 30)
7.8 Proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility
(formally target 31)
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MDG: Target 30 – access to
improved drinking water
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MDG:
Target 31 –
access to
improved
sanitation
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Challenges to monitoring and
achieving MDG 7
‘Countries face many difficulties in monitoring the MDG 7 indicators, as well
as in the overall goal of making progress on environmental sustainability.”
“Insufficient availability of data and disaggregated data, lack of baseline data
to act as references, and uncoordinated data collection inhibit the
monitoring of targets set.”
Source: Making Progress on Environmental Sustainability,
http://www.unep.org/poverty_environment/PDF_docs/mdg7english.pdf
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MDG 7:Steps for improvement
“While the MDG framework is best managed as a group of interrelated targets,
MDG 7 warrants particular attention given the weaknesses both in
monitoring and in overall progress. This report presents specific steps to be
used in tailoring targets and indicators for MDG 7. The steps can be
followed in the order offered here or in a different sequence:
1) assess country environmental issues;
2) identify existing priorities;
3) use analytical frameworks to determine additional critical parameters;
4) set country-specific and verifiable targets;
5) select indicators and establish a baseline to track progress;
6) implement monitoring and data gathering systems;
7) analyse and interpret results; and
8) communicate the results to policy makers and the public.
Source: Making Progress on Environmental Sustainability
http://www.unep.org/poverty_environment/PDF_docs/mdg7english.pdf
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So for MDG (and other reporting
frameworks) we need…..
• An analytical framework for understanding the relations
between the environment and the economy
• Indicators of these relationships
• Monitoring and data systems to support the framework and
indicators
• To be able analyse and interpret results and communicate
results to policy makers and the public
Environmental and economic
accounting provides this!
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SEEAW and Indicators
• The SEEAW standard tables and commonly
collected statistics on the population and
economy can be combined to produce a
wide range of water indicators
• Population size and national accounts are
two of the most commonly uses sources of
other data
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The SEEAW Indicators
(pages 169-183)
SEEAW provides an annex on indicators
• Water availability
• Water intensity and productivity
• Opportunities to increase water supply
• Cost and price of water supply and
wastewater treatment services
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Additional UNSD Guidance on
compiling indicators
• As part of the development of the
International Recommendations of Water
Statistics, UNSD will prepare guidance on
the construction of policy relevant
indicators
• A draft should be available mid-2008
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Indicators of water availability
• Per capita renewable resources
• Ratio between Total renewable water resources and
population size. (WWDR 2003, Margat 1996)
• Annual Withdrawals of Ground and Surface Water as a
Percent of Total Renewable Water/Exploitation index
• The total annual volume of ground and surface water
abstracted for water uses as a percentage of the total
annually renewable volume of freshwater. (UN, 2001)
• Consumption Index
• Ratio between Water Consumption and Total
Renewable Resources. (Margat, 1996)
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Per capita renewable resources
from SEEAW
Total renewable
water resources
________________
Population
=
SEEAW
Asset account
2. Returns + 3. Precipitation +
4. Inflows – 6. Evaporation –
7. Outflows
________________
Population
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Annual Withdrawals of Ground
and Surface Water as a Percent of
Total Renewable from SEEAW
Withdrawals of
ground and surface
water
________________
Total renewable
water resources
SEEAW
Physical Use Table
1.i.1 Abstraction from surface water +
1.i.2 Abstraction from ground water
________________
=
SEEAW
Asset account
2. Returns + 3. Precipitation + 4. Inflows –
6. Evaporation – 7. Outflows
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Consumption Index
SEEAW
from
SEEAW
Physical Supply Table
Water consumption
________________
Total renewable
water resources
=
7. Consumption
________________
SEEAW
Asset account
2. Returns + 3. Precipitation +
4. Inflows – 6. Evaporation –
7. Outflows
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Indicators for water intensity and productivity
from SEEAW
1. Water use and pollution intensity (physical units)
m3 water/unit of physical output Water use or tons of pollution emitted per
unit of output, such as
Tons
of
pollution/unit
of
--population,
physical output
--number of households, or
--tons of wheat, steel, etc. produced
2. Water and pollution intensity (monetary units)
m3 water/value of output
Water use or tons of pollution emitted per
Tons of pollution/value of output unit of output measured in currency units
3. Water productivity ratios
GDP/ m3 water
Value-added by sector/m3 water
4. Water ‘pollutivity’ ratios
Sector share of pollution/sector
share of GDP
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Indicators for opportunities to increase water
supply from SEEA
1. Return flows
Quantity of return flows by
source
2. Water reuse
Reuse water as share of total
industry water use
Recycled water as share of total
water use by sector
3. Losses
Losses
in
abstraction
and
treatment as share of total water
production
Unaccounted for losses as share
of total water use
May distinguish return flows from treated
return flows (from municipal and
industrial users) from untreated return
flows such as agriculture
May distinguish reuse of water within a
plant from water recycled by municipal
water utility
Both the amount and the reason for these
losses are usually known by the water
utility
These losses occur for a variety of causes
and it is usually not certain how much
each cause contributes
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Indicators for cost and price of water supply and
wastewater treatment
1. Supply cost and price of water
Implicit water price
Volume of water purchased divided by supply
cost
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Average water price per m by industry Volume of water purchased divided by actual
payments by that industry
Average water supply cost per m 3 by Volume of water purchased divided by cost
industry
of supply to that industry
Subsidy per m3 by industry
Average water price minus average water
supply cost
2. Supply cost and price of wastewater treatment services
Implicit wastewater treatment price
Volume of water treated divided by supply
cost
Average wastewater treatment cost per Volume of wastewater divided by treatment
m3 by industry
cost for that industry
Average wastewater treatment price Volume of wastewater divided by actual
per m3 by industry
payments for treatment by that industry
Subsidy per m3 by industry
Average wastewater price minus average
wastewater supply cost
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Indicators of access to and affordability of water
and sanitation services
1. Access to water and sanitation services
Average daily water consumption by households, differentiating rural and
urban households
Percent of urban households with access to safe drinking water
Percent of rural households with access to safe drinking water
E.g. from household
expenditure surveys
Percent of urban households with access to sanitation services
Percent of rural households with access to sanitation services
2. Affordability of water
Household expenditures for water as % of total expenditures, differentiating
rural and urban
Average price of water to households, differentiating rural and urban
Average price of water for subsistence agriculture (irrigation and livestock
watering)
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Links between the World Water
Development Report Indicators and
SEEAW
• World Water Assessment Programme 2006
• 21 of 38 Indicators can be directly derived from the water
accounts
• An 5 indicators can be partially derived
• 12 cannot be derived but can be included as supplementary
information. Of these
• 4 are social indicators (e.g. urban and rural population)
• 3 are related to land areas and could be derived from
land accounts
• 3 are related to energy and could be derived from
energy accounts
• Remaining 2 relate to ISO 14001 certification
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Data, accounts, indicators and
analysis
Indicators
Accounting
SNA, SEEA, SEEAW
Micro data
• All of these level are needed to have
a complete information system
• Because policy makers are not yet
familiar with environment accounts,
you may find it useful to conduct
your own analysis of the accounts or
to encourage others to do an analysis
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Valuation and indicators
• Valuation is the most contentious part of
environmental accounting
• The hybrid accounts are the starting point for
valuation
• Compile these using standard SNA techniques
• Some other approaches are described in Part II of
SEEAW
• When presenting data and indicators that rely on
valuation you must provide some guidance on
interpretation
Approach issues of valuation cautiously
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Summary
• Indicators are important communication
tools. They summarise complex information
• Indicators are only as good as the data and
accounts that underpin them
• Indicators need to be interpreted and
analysed in the context of other data
• Indicators need to built on solid foundation
of data
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Audiences for information
Public
Politicians
Indicators
Accounting
SNA, SEEA, SEEAW
Researchers
Policy Makers
Strategic planners
Micro data
Indicators are part of communicating information
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Contact details
Michael Vardon
Adviser on Environmental-Economic Accounting
United Nations Statistics Division
New York 10017 USA
Room DC2 1532
Phone: +1 917 367 5391
Fax: +1 917 963 1374
Email: [email protected]
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