Session 2: Basic Concepts

of Environment Statistics
Workshop on Environment Statistics
Yaoundé, 5-9 December 2011

United Nations Statistics Division

Fundamentals of environment statistics

1. Definition, scope and objective

2. The domain of environment statistics
3. Types of environment statistics
4. Need, users and products of environment
statistics
5. Sources of environment statistics
6. Relation to economic and social statistics
7. Institutional dimension of environment statistics
8. A brief history of environment statistics
1. Definition, scope and
objective of ES
 Environment Statistics

Environment statistics describe the qualitative
and quantitative aspects of the state and changes
of the environment and its interaction with human
activities and natural events.

Environment statistics are integrative, measure

human activities and natural events that affect
the environment, monitor the impacts on the
environment and the social responses to
environmental impacts.

Environment statistics is a domain of statistics,

and it is indispensable for evidence based policies
and decision making to support sustainable
development.
 The Environment and the Human Subsystem

Humans use environmental

resources for production
and consumption and they
Environment
return residuals and waste
to the environment.

Human Sub-system As a result of human activities,

environmental conditions,
natural processes and the
capacity of ecosystems to
provide their goods and
services all experience
change.

These changes, in turn, initiate

Processes within the Processes within the Interactions between the changes in the human
environment human sub-sytem environment and the subsystem’s economic and
human sub-system social processes.

FDES Conceptual foundation- preliminary

Environmental Conditions and their Changes

Environmental Simplified Diagram

Conditions t0

Natural processes
Changes
(t1-t0) Human activities
Human
Subsystem

Environmental
Conditions t1

FDES Conceptual foundation- preliminary


About the environment as a whole,
what do we know, what can we
monitor and measure, and what do
we want to incorporate in the
production of environment statistics?
U1 The U1 Universe = The Ecosphere

U2 Known universe= adjacent and interacting with humans

U3 Measurable universe = realm of

Components of
environment
1.
Environment Environmental
Statistics Conditions
and Processes Statistics
5. 2.
Environmental Environmental
Protection and Resources and
Management
their Use

U4 What the
country includes
4. 3. in its environment
Environmental Emissions,
Quality and residuals and statistics system
Impact waste

As illustration, environment statistics’ usual
themes/topics can include (but are not restricted to):
Atmosphere, Climate, Ambient Air, Biodiversity and Biota,
Land, Forest, Water, Ocean/Marine, Natural Resources,
Pollution, Environmental Quality, Residuals and Waste,
Environmental Protection Expenditure, Environmental
Management, etc.

There are different ways to structure and organize the
contents of Environment Statistics (frameworks will be
discussed later)

The actual individual statistics and indicators to be produced by a

country will depend on the selection criteria (i.e. relevance,
statistical feasibility)
 The Objectives of Environment Statistics

Immediate objective of environment statistics is to
provide quantitative information about the
environment’s state and its most important changes
over time and across territories.

Aim to provide quality statistical information to
improve policy and decision making by different
players.

Operationally, the objective and ultimate purpose of

environment statistics can be achieved by setting up,
strengthening and sustaining environment statistics
programmes and units that function on a regular basis in
each country, similar to those already operating in
economic and social statistics.

Source: Revised FDES. Provisional Draft.

 2. The domain of
environment statistics
 Characteristics of ES

Environment statistics is a cross-cutting statistical
domain with specific complexities.

The development of programmes of environment
statistics is heterogeneous among countries, but
clear progress have been made during the last 15
years, particularly in developing countries.

The demand for environment statistics is
increasing rapidly everywhere.

Environment statistics production requires
combined technical expertise on environmental
themes, statistical technical capacities and
institutional coordination capacities.

By definition, environment statistics are
multidisciplinary and cross-cutting, involving
numerous stakeholders
 Characteristics of ES (cont)

Environment statistics’ sources are dispersed and a
variety of methods are applied in their compilation.

Environment statistics are compiled, stored and
disseminated by central statistical services, government
departments, research institutes, local authorities and
international organizations.

They are collected through censuses, surveys, the use of
administrative records, but also from specific types of
sources such as: monitoring stations, remote sensing and
scientific research.

The way of collecting data from the specific types of

sources differs considerably from the survey
techniques employed in social and economic statistics.

From the environment to the production of biophysical

data describing natural resources and environmental
quality
 Characteristics of ES (cont)

Usually, the same institutions producing environmental data are
also users of environment statistics. Further demand for
environmental data arises from business and industry,
scientists, the mass communication media and the general
public.

The interdisciplinary and inter-institutional characteristics of
environment statistics and the variety of data producers and
users require collaboration among institutions, practitioners and
experts in different fields

To effectively transform environmental information into official
environment statistics, the collaboration and coordination of a
significant number of actors and institutions is required.

Institutions with strong leadership and the skills and resources to
facilitate multi-stakeholder processes are required

Thus, institutional strengthening and inter-institutional
collaboration and co-ordination are inherent to environment
statistics data production, processing and dissemination.
 Dispersion, atomization and costs of
monitoring and measurement

Environmental phenomena takes place in dispersed manner, constantly over time
and across territories, as a fluid set of processes, each with different velocities.

At the primary sources, measuring and monitoring requires careful selection.

Transforming raw data from primary sources to statistics, takes expertise and
institutional capacities.

Developing countries face budgetary constraints and the funds allocated to

statistics are subject to restrictions. In general, environmental issues are given a
lower priority than social and economic statistics.

The cost of monitoring systems and remote sensing is falling over time, some of
the primary production of raw data (in monitoring and remote sensing agencies)
require the investment, calibration and use of somewhat costly instruments, not to
mention the work of interpreting data (such as satellite images). This means that
the country has to invest in developing these monitoring capabilities, and also that
scientists and highly specialized experts must be hired on a stable basis. Remote
sensing in particular also requires the validation of the imagery data with direct
observation in the field, thereby increasing the cost of producing environment
statistics by this method, relative to the cost of statistics derived from
questionnaires, for example.

Prioritizing environment statistics that are most relevant, critical or strategic, and
work progressively on further expansion.
 Temporal considerations

Time consideration is key to environment statistics. In fluid
environment phenomena, the time is set arbitrarily as its
dynamics are not discrete, but are rather continuums.

Uniform calendar or fiscal year does not fit the diversity of
natural phenomena as their behaviour is significant within either
much shorter or much longer periods of time than traditional
variables of the statistical system.

Still, some environment statistics are often produced/updated
annually within NSOs.

Periodicity.

Periodicity needs to be adjusted according to relevance of each
variable

I.e., in a slow growing forest that is not subject to logging – do
not require assiduous monitoring and informing about its status,
since relevant changes occur over years.

Other processes change so quickly that in some urban centres
they are monitored as frequently as every hour of the day. One
example is air quality, which depends on emissions and
concentrations of fine and coarse particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5)
 From raw data to statistics - examples
Monitoring: observations Selection, validation, Relevant statistical
are voluminous structure, description data series
over time and space

Statistical
Primary Source Dissemination
Office
I.e. Monitoring Station,
Remote Sensing
Transforms raw to public
data into
statistics

Time: Different periodicities

 Temporal considerations, cont.
Distinguish among periodicities:

The first time period to be defined is when the occurrence of the phenomena are
relevant to the microdata or data being produced,

Second periodicity is the time period for which data will be made available for
processing,

Third period can be defined for when a statistical operation willwill take place in order to
produce and disseminate official data series.

Illustration a) Statistic UV radiation, most likely there will be
be an hourly periodicity of
measurements within a network of monitoring sites in any given country, country, there will be a
periodicity for transmitting these microdata to a meteorological institution, and from
here to the statistical office or environment ministry which will
will produce a data series of
monthly maximums, minimums and average radiation for a set of territories.
territories.

Illustration b) Soil degradation for a defined territory, will probably
probably yield one or two
points of observation within decades and therefore there will probably
probably be only one time
in which the observation, measurement, transmission and operation
operation to produce the
statistical series takes place.

Seasonality

Some environmental variables behave in a markedly seasonal manner
manner

Fluctuations in certain types of fish biomass, surface water levels,

levels, ice cap surface or the
incidence of fires.

In such cases, monitoring needs to be focused more during some months

months than others,
and therefore statistics should be carefully produced in the most
most relevant time periods.
 Spatial considerations

Environmental phenomena occur in a given territorial space and their sequence
of occurrence and impacts are distributed within territories.

I.e., some rivers and ecosystems (forests), mountains and oceans, are shared
by different regions and countries.

Climate change occurs at a global level although its causes, state, impact and
responses are unevenly distributed among countries, not only based on natural
geographic circumstances but also by the patterns of production, consumption
and disposition of residuals that are very different in developing and developed
countries at different locations.

Environmental variables fluctuate considerably depending on their geographic
location, which in turn is associated with different climatic and ecosystemic
conditions and anthropogenic pressures.

Consequently, spatialized indicators, or those that are specific to each territory,
are more useful than indicators that are national aggregates or averages.
I.e. Quality of surface water intended for human consumption, sincesince a specific water
pollution indicator – e.g., the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)–
(BOD)– may be less
important in the flow downriver from a city than in the intake for
for public water use.
More important to inform the maximum levels at a very specific geographic
geographic location,
rather than the average pollution levels, in order to determine whether the standard
for that location has been met. The average would be influenced by the number of
observations and the pollution levels for the entire length of the
the river.

Measuring and producing statistics about the environment pose a challenge to
traditional statistical systems that mostly rely on administrative units of
observation and produce data in accordance with these institutionally set
boundaries and units.
 Spatial considerations, cont

Currently, most sources and current data availability (environmental,
social, demographic and economic) in the statistical systems are not
spatially observed, measured or capable of being (diss)aggregated
according to spatial categories.

Most economic and social data are collected and aggregated using
political-administrative boundaries.

But most environmental phenomena and an important part of environment
statistics are observed and collected with regard to some spatial unit, that
being a territory, an ecosystem, a biome or a basin. Only environment
statistics originating in traditional sources (Surveys and Admin Records)
are observed at individual establishments or households and are
aggregated according to administrative boundaries.

Recently collection of some traditional data sets are georeferenced. I.e,
some countries implemented 2010 Round of Population and Housing
Censuses.

Some countries are advancing significantly in producing data using
geographical, geomatic and geodesic bases for describing human activities
within their territories and can relate these spatial attributes to economic,
social and environment statistics.

Geo-statistics appear set to play a pivotal role in environment statistics,
and in official statistics generally.
Space, territories and boundaries
a) The Earth – no boundaries
b) Definition of biomes, ecosystems, basins
and habitats – overlapping borders
c) Definition of political administrative
boundaries – countries
d) Definition of economic territory
e) Definition of international areas
a. The Earth – no boundaries
The planet holds one unique immense
and fluid environment composed of
interacting ecosystems that are not
simply unconnected and distinct and
which do not recognize any particular
border set up by humankind.
Environment statistics aim
to capture the magnitudes
of these different aspects of
the state and changes of
ecosystems that are
experienced by countries but are
trans-boundary in nature.

These are the complex ecosystems represented globally. Environment Statistics aim to
capture its state and changes at different scales.
b. Definition of different natural areas –
overlapping borders

Biomes Australasia
ecozone

Ecosystems

Habitats

Ecozones

Water Basins
 The world's biomes

Biomes are defined as "the world's major communities, classified according to the
predominant vegetation and characterized by adaptations of organisms
organisms to that particular
environment" (Campbell 1996).
1996).

Biomes have changed and moved many times during the history of life life on Earth. More
recently, human activities have drastically altered these communities.
commun ities.

Usual biomes of the world include Mountains (High Elevation), Tundra, Temperate Forest,
Marine/Island, Desert, Tropical Dry Forest, Cold Climate Forest, Grassland, Savannah, and
Tropical Rainforest

Biomes, major types :

Freshwater

Marine

Desert

Forest

Grassland

Tundra
 Ecosystems

“An ecosystem includes all the biotic interactions of a
community as well as the interactions between organisms and
their abiotic environment. Like other systems, an ecosystem
consists of multiple interacting parts that form a unified whole.
An ecosystem is a system in which all of the biological,
physical, and chemical components of an area form a complex,
interacting network of energy flow and materials cycling”.
Raven, Berg, Hassenzahl (2008): Environment. Wiley, 6th
Edition. P. 47.

An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, animal and

micro-organism communities and their non-living environment
interacting as a functional unit". Convention on Biological Diversity

Ecosystems can be described at different scales, i.e., they can

be as large as the Sahara Desert, or as small as a puddle or vernal
pool.
 Habitats
A habitat is the natural
environment in which an
organism lives, or the physical

Coastal environment that surrounds
(influences and is utilized by) a
species population

Rainforest

Coral reef
 River basins and watersheds

A watershed is an area of land

that drains to a common
location. A watershed can
vary in size, they can
represent the area draining to
a small stream to the entire
are draining to an ocean.
c. Political-administrative national boundaries

Country Sub-national regions Territorial land, seas and

islands

• Territory under one political authority

• Sub-national regions defined administratively
• Usually includes territorial seas and islands
 d. Economic Territory
Rest of the world
Economic territory
includes the land area of
a country including
islands, airspace,
territorial waters and
territorial enclaves in the
rest of the world.
Economic territory
excludes territorial
enclaves located in the
reference country.

A national economy
comprises the set of all
institutional units that
are resident in an
economic territory, i.e.,
the unit has its centre of
predominant economic
interest in a particular
economic territory.

National economy
e. Areas outside of exclusive
economic zones

Areas outside of exclusive economic zones (in bright blue)

3. Types of environment
statistics
 Types of Environmental Information

Environmental
Information

Environment Statistics Qualitative

Environmental
Information
Basic
Environment Statistics

Papers, articles, briefs

Environment Indicators Assessment Reports
Monitoring Reports

Environmental Accounting
 Types of quantitative environmental information,
characteristics, users and products
Type of environment Characteristics Major Users Illustrative
quantitative Products
information
Environment Statistics Voluminous Researchers Databases
Detailed Analyst
Include as many variables as possible Report authors Compendia
Highly disaggregated Indicator producers
Accounts producers
Indicators Aggregated Analysts Indicators sets
Composite Advisors
Highly aggregated Decision makers Indicators
Selected variables into a limited in General public databases
number (for monitoring
Presented in a context policy goals,
and targets)
Accounts (SEEA) Aggregated at the national level Analysts Result Tables
Integrates economic and Indicator producers
environmental data Decision makers
It contains different accounts such as General public
natural assets accounts, physical
flows, emissions, etc.
 Environment statistics

Environment statistics is also referred to as basic environment
statistics.

Usually voluminous sets of statistics describing the state and

trends of the environment and their main components. Include
the human subsystem in its interrelation to ecosystems as a
whole.

To transform raw data into official statistics requires a carefully

tailored process of definition of the types of magnitudes (i.e.
aggregates, averages, minimums, maximums, etc) and its
attributes (time, location, coverage, etc.) to be captured by
carefully selected variables, that are then collected, validated,
structured and described using statistical standards and
procedures (more later).

Usually the environment statistics series are produced for

countries, regions and the world, and disseminated through
compendia and databases. Because of their volume, the general
public and the decision makers often require further processing of
environment statistics to satisfy their analytical and decision-
making needs.
 Environmental indicators

Environmental indicators are a particular type of statistics,
requiring a careful selection of individual statistics in order to
calculate a composite or more complex measure to depict
key elements of processes about the environment.

Indicator sets are typically produced to monitor national
(and international) policy goals and targets and to enable
continued oversee of progress towards sought objectives.

Environmental indicators are widely produced as a stand
alone product, but sometimes environmental indicators are
part of sets of sustainable development indicators, along
with accompanying economic and social indicators.

Indicators are powerful measures that are usually
disseminated with an accompanying context and
explanation. Frequently, environmental indicators are
disseminated through reports, brochures and websites, and
are widely used in assessment and reports about the state
and trends of the environment.
 Environmental accounting
The System of integrated Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA)
(SEEA) is an accounting
framework that follows the methodology of the System of National Accounts[1].

It consists of a series of tables that account for the interactions

interactions between the economy
and the environment, using standard classifications, as well as environmental and
economic statistical data sets.

Environmental-
Environmental-economic accounts is aimed at measuring the impacts of the economyeconomy on
the environment, the contribution of the environment to the economy
economy and the state
of the environment. The SEEA is the statistical framework that provides
internationally agreed concepts, definitions, classifications, accounting
accounting rules and
standard tables for producing internationally comparable statistics
statistics on the
environment and its relationship with the economy.

For example, in the field of natural resources, there is SEEA-

SEEA-Water that focuses on
accounting for stocks and flows, and inflows and outflows of water
water in a country, so
that physical balances can be calculated by the end of the fiscal
fiscal year, thus making
possible the temporal analysis.

The SEEA is currently undergoing revision for the new SEEA (Volume
(Volume 1) and is expected
to be adopted by 2012.

[1] The SEEA is a satellite account of the central SNA, the accounting
accounting framework used worldwide to provide economic accounts that
are comprehensive (in that all designated activities and the consequences
consequences for all agents in an economy are covered), consistent
(identical values are used to establish the consequences of a single
single action on all parties concerned using the same accounting
rules); and integrated, in that all the consequences of a single action by one agent are necessarily reflected in resulting accounts,
accounts,
including the impact on measurement of wealth captured in balance
balance sheets [SNA 2008].
4. Need, users and
products of environment
statistics
Need for Environment Statistics

Offer environmental data series (through compendia and

databases) and feed into the production of environmental and
sustainable development reports, indicators and accounts, at the
national and international level;

Support evidence based policy making, by enabling the objective
quantification of components and impacts of policy initiatives
(whose goals and aims may or may not have quantitative targets
and/or indicators);

Strengthen assessment through quantitative metrics, making
analysis and assessment more robust through official, comparable
and timely data provision;

Enable statistical reporting to major national and international
data collectors (i.e. international environmental agreements,
global and regional data collection through Questionnaires and
other instruments). Reporting can be voluntary or it might entail
obligations, data is needed regardless. For supranational
reporting comparability is more important;

Inform the general public, civil organizations and major
stakeholder groups through official and relevant environmental
data sets.
 Users of Environment
Statistics
Environment Statistics serve a variety of users, including:
• The general public
• Decision and policy makers
• Researchers
• Analysts, experts and advisors
• Government officials and practitioners
• International agencies

The different users need the environment statistics presented at

different levels of aggregation and dissagregation, and with
specific depths of information and metadata.

The users may be sometimes in need of cross-cutting
environment statistics datasets and in other cases only interested
in particular topics and themes pertaining to environment
statistics.

These players regularly use environment statistics to produce

different products and results that are generally published and
disseminated
 Products using Environment Statistics
Products

Databases
Compendia
Yearbooks

Indicators

FDES
Environment
Statistics State of the
Organizes environment Environment Reports
statistics for:
Reports to Multilateral
Environmental
Agreements and
Conventions

SEEA

Source: Revised FDES. Provisional Draft.

5. Sources of environment
statistics
Traditional and non-traditional sources
of environment statistics
Sources of environmental statistics
Traditional sources (Surveys, Census, Administrative Records)

Transport House
Industry Tourism
holds
Human
Settlements
Energy
Agriculture, Population
Forest and
Fisheries

FDES
Non
traditional Monitoring Scientific
sources Stations Research
Remote Modeling &
Sensing Estimation

Source: Revised FDES. Provisional Draft.

Main sources of Environment Statistics
1. Administrative records (of government agencies in charge
of natural resources and other ministries)
2. Statistical censuses (of population, housing, livestock,
businesses) and surveys (of households, employment,
and different aspects of environment management)
3. Monitoring systems (of water quality, air pollution,
climate, soils, and so on)
4. Remote sensing (i.e. satellite imaging of land use, water
bodies and forest cover)
5. Estimates and modeling (creating different models for
estimation, and using methods such as regression,
extrapolation and interpolation)
6. Scientific Research
Type of Principal potential Principal potential Challenges for developing
Example of source type Example of statistical data sets
source strengths weaknesses countries

Apparent consumption of
agrochemicals
Chlorofluorocarbon consumption
Statistical exploitation of records maintained in Building statistical
Number of motor vehicles High periodicity of Questionable quality of
different government agencies for administrative capacities in sectoral
Environmental impact production (annual, records in terms of lack
1. purposes, at various levels (national, regional, ministries and public
Licensing quarterly and even of continuity, and
Administrativ provincial, municipal, and so on) such as: services
Enforcement of protected area monthly) and thus insufficiency of
e records Customs records (imports), sectoral ministry Requires stable national
regulations high frequency of metadata to ensure
records, public finance and budget records, tax inter-institutional
Environmental education actions updating compatibility of series
returns records, environmental authority records. coordination
Reforested surface area
Public spending on environmental
matters

More
Potable water
representative of Periodicity every Refining sectors of the
Although these are general purpose instruments, Basic sanitation
2.1 the universe of decade, some instrument to capture more
censuses may often include environmental Housing quality
Censuses informants, more developing countries and better environmental
aspects of areas inhabited by the population. Electricity connections to
accurate data even less frequent information
households
outcomes

Includes general purpose instruments (which Potable water

may undoubtedly cover environmental issues) Basic sanitation Refining sectors of
such as Household Surveys and business Housing quality recurrent instruments to
Sampling and
surveys; also includes emerging surveys Establishments with environmental Greater periodicity capture more and better
representativeness of
specifically designed to gather environmental management systems and therefore more environmental information
2.2. Surveys sample in the universe
information, such as environmental management Production and handling of solid frequent updating Developing and maintaining
of informants can be a
surveys for business establishments (industry, waste of series specialized environmental
concern
tourism, agriculture, and so on), municipal Opinion barometers on surveys of different sectors
environmental management surveys and public environmental policies and and on different scales
opinion polls on the environment, among others. management

Includes various natural resource quality and

Various parameters sampled to Need to coordinate the flow
pollution monitoring stations and systems, such
establish: of data from primary source
as: In general, good to Costs of installing and
Quality of potable water in terms of periodicity,
3. Monitoring Urban air pollution monitoring stations, surface excellent quality maintaining monitoring
Urban clean air quality aggregation and format
systems water quality monitoring systems (principal and more accurate systems and thus of
Coastal - beaches pollution required for feeding into
rivers), glacier monitoring systems, seawater or data and microdata producing microdata
Level, height or retract of principal statistical production
coastal water quality monitoring systems, and so
glaciers (series, indicators)
on.

Cost of interpreting Requires geo-spatial

images remains high literacy among officials
Satellite imaging to inventory Very accurate, but
All kinds of remote sensing and atmospheric Many national responsible for
forests still under-utilized
4. Remote measuring tools that produce images and their statistical offices and environmental statistics
Remote imaging of urban sprawl Costs of imaging
sensing interpretation: satellite imaging, aerial Ministries of the Requires sufficient
(city surface) have declined
photography, geodata, geodesy, geomatics Environment do not resources to interpret
Land cover and land use (types) considerably
have specialists in images and build geospatial
geomatics representations of data

Can be used when Results may be

5. Modeling Estimates made using different methods such as
CO2 emissions it is not possible to questionable,
and regression, modelling, simulation, scenarios,
Degradation of natural resources monitor or gather depending on
Estimation extrapolation and interpolation.
information directly methodologies used
6. Relation to economic
and social statistics
 Relations between social, economic and
environment statistics

Sust Dev
Indicators

Social
Ind

SNA Ind

Env Social Stats

SEEA Ind
Ec Stats

Env Stats
7.Institutional dimension
of Environment Statistics
 Why the institutional dimension is
important?

The production of environment statistics requires institutional capacities to
enable the systematic production and dissemination of good quality and
timely statistical products.

To effectively transform environmental information into official environment

statistics, the collaboration and coordination of a significant number of
actors and institutions is required.

To successfully produce official environment statistics on a permanent basis

requires institutions with strong leadership and the skills and resources to
facilitate multi-stakeholder processes.

Building the capacities of institutions to lead, plan, organize and coordinate

the production of environment statistics is essential, especially in developing
countries where resources are scarce.

In general, in many developing countries institutional weakness, lack of an

institutional framework, unclear mandates, duplication of efforts and/or poor
coordination are key barriers for the systematic production of environment
statistics.
 Key players
Potential data providers can roughly be grouped as follows:

National Statistical Institutes and their related bodies (e.g.,
regional offices)

Public Administration (e.g., Ministries) and related bodies (e.g.,
Environment Agencies, National Geographical Institutes, local
authorities)

Research Institutes (public and private)

Private or semi-private interest groups (e.g., Water Association,
Chamber of Commerce, Agriculture Lobby Groups)

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

In addition, in the field of environment statistics, most of these

players are also users of official environment statistics’ series
and data sets.

Source: Michael Nagy, cited in the Revised FDES, preliminary draft.

draft.
 Main institutional challenges
countries face in ES
1. In many countries a coherent and explicit institutional framework
framework to govern the production
of environment statistics is not clear or missing. Often it is not
not clear which agency or
agencies are responsible for the country’
country’s official environment statistics.
2. The various institutions involved in the production of environment
environment statistics, i.e., National
Statistical Offices (NSOs), Environmental Ministries and other line line and sectoral agencies
(Water, Air, Forest, Agriculture, Ocean authorities) frequently do not coordinate or share
data, often resulting in duplication of efforts.
3. It is common that human and financial resources dedicated to environment
environment statistics are
limited. Consequently activities such as coordination and collaboration
collaboration with other agencies
do not take priority.
4. Often the production of environment statistics is begun in an ad hoc manner, with teams
set up to carry out specific projects aiming to publish a first set of environment statistics,
indicators and/or accounts. In many cases the production of environment
environment statistics fails to
be “institutionalized”
institutionalized”. In other words, the generation of the statistical product does not
become a regular activity and is not accorded the human and financial
financial resources needed
to carry it out on an ongoing basis.
5. In the emerging domain of environment statistics, the turnover of of staff is high in both
NSOs and Ministries, particularly in developing countries. These losses of human capital
are an important concern as there is a general lack of environment
environment statistics expertise
among both environmental experts and statisticians.
6. There is insufficient communication and coordination among the producer producer and user
communities of environment statistics at all levels.
7. There are insufficient information and operational guidelines (available
(available in the languages of
the practitioners) regarding the institutional dimension of environment
environment statistics
production, thus often NSOs and Environmental Ministries do not have a clear idea of the
minimum requirements necessary for implementing an official environment
environment statistics
programme.
Key elements to the institutional
dimension
a) Legal Framework
b) Institutional development
c) Organization of inter-institutional
collaboration
d) Collaboration among national, regional
and global scales
 a) Legal Framework

Legal framework relevant for production of Env Stats.

Commonly consists of a statistical, environmental and other relevant sectoral
legislation (water, energy, agriculture). Each defines mandate and competencies
of institutions in charge of each sector.

Under the national statistical legislation, usually the NSO is the responsible
authority for creating and coordinating the national statistical system.

But frequently, the statistics law does not explicitly make reference to
environmental information (newer domain). Does not explicitly provide
guidelines for statistical coordination among the relevant statistical parties.

Nevertheless, because of increasing demand in development agenda, NSOs
have included the production of environment statistics in their programmes,
usually collaborating with Environment and other line Ministries.

Usually, Environment Ministries are by law in charge of creating national
environmental information system (including national environmental
indicators to monitor the environment and the implementation of
environmental policies).

There may be unclear and overlapping mandates, duplication of efforts, and
coordination difficulties.

Important to review their statistical and environmental legislation to provide
clarity on the authorities responsible for producing official environment
statistics along with guidelines for statistical governance and coordination.
 b) Institutional development
• Successful organization of a national environment statistics unit, with a
well defined programme is critical within the official institutions
responsible for statistics production
• Even in developing countries, Environment Statistics Departments/Units
have been created and are supported at the same level with Economic
and Social Statistics Departments.
• Environment Statistics, as any other static program, require a regular
budget for operations and a minimum amount of personnel who would
ideally be trained for the tasks entailed. Hence, it is important for the
environment statistics units to have a capacity building programme for
their staff along with the financial resources to carry it out.
• Institutions deciding to start/strengthen environment statistics
programmes require human resources, technical capacities, minimum
infrastructure and networking with regional and global networks.

Environment
Statistics
Department
 c. Organization of inter-institutional
collaboration
• Inter-institutional platform (Round Table, Committee, Working
Group) are established to work on the production of national
environment statistics in general, or on specific topics (i.e., water,
forest, protected areas, solid waste, etc).

• Several developing countries producing environment statistics have

established an inter-institutional platform to coordinate the
generation of environment statistics and the development of their
countries’ national environment statistics systems.

• From establishment to operational…

• Platform to developed a strategy, work plan, protocols,
coordination and governance mechanism, and meet on a regular
basis to advance the work.
• NSO as the official authority tasked with overseeing the national
statistical system or the system of environment information
nationally needs to be engaged to coordinate these platforms,
with adequate authority, resources and capacities to lead.
•
Inter-institutional platform, cont.

• Tasks of the platform is to ensure that a common statistical

standard and methodology is being used to generate the
information to ensure that it is statistically sound

• Data sharing agreements between key institutions is necessary

In some countries the data sharing agreements are formalized to
explicitly stipulate that government agencies share their data. In
other countries this is done on an informal basis.

• Also important to have an executive board or committee to

oversee the strategic aspects of the process and to whom the
technical platform can report. This will ensure that the
technical platform has the authority and institutional backing
needed and that decisions can be taken on important strategic
and management issues. The high level mechanism can also
be called upon to support the work of the technical platform,
particularly in terms of allocating resources and including the
work of the platform as part of staff’s regular workplan.
 d. Collaboration among national,
regional and global levels
Similar challenges within the international statistical community

3 levels of statistical production of environment statistics:

national, regional and global

from which 3 interfaces for collaboration emerge:

a) national-global, b) national-regional, and c) regional-
global

Arrangements and mechanisms for better coordination and cost

effectiveness among the national, regional and global levels is key,
(understanding that all potential partners have different mandates, work
programs and deadlines)

Example of national to global coordination: Data sharing among agencies

at national and global levels is necessary. Often specialized United Nations
agencies obtain statistics directly from national sector agencies (i.e.
health, education, water, etc.) without coordinating with the NSO or UNSD
…. duplication of efforts and respondent fatigue. The process is suboptimal
with precious time, statistical inputs and results lost or discontinued,
especially in the less statistically developed countries. This is exacerbated
by the high turnover of staff experienced in developing countries.
 Coordination interfaces: National - Regional - Global

1: National Level 2: Regional Level 3: Global Level

NSO- Ministries RCs, Regional Offices of UN
Substantive Regional Bodies UNSD, Specialized agencies:
• NSO UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA,
UNEP, UNEP, ILO, UN
• Line Ministries Women, etc.
• Sectoral Authorities

Interface A:
national- regional

UN RCs Interface B:
Regional Statistical
Conferences, regional-global
RCs, Regional UN
Bodies, UNSD

Interface C:
national- global
UN Agencies, NSO and National Agencies
8. A brief history of
environment statistics
 A history of environment statistics

The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment
(Stockholm, June 1972) was the first global conference to signal that
environmental concerns had increasingly become the subject of
mainstream socioeconomic policies.

The first initiatives to develop environment statistics at the
international level stemmed from two meetings of the Economic
Commission for Europe (ECE) in 1973. Given the global
environmental concerns, a draft programme of international work in
environment statistics was first submitted to the Statistical
Commission at its eighteenth session in 1974.

The second major global conference in the environmental field was
the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio
de Janeiro, June 1992) where a groundbreaking consensus was
achieved that strategies of sustainable development should integrate
environmental issues into development plans and policies. Specific
recommendations by Agenda 21 to UNSD referred to the
development and implementation of integrated environmental and
economic accounting and indicators of sustainable development.

While work at UNSD concentrated on conceptual frameworks,
indicators and environmental-economic accounting, the UN-ECE
Statistics Division pioneered work on standard environment statistics
classifications.
 A history …. cont

Progressively, UNSD published relevant methodological handbooks
including the FDES (1984), and subsequent accompanying handbooks,
and an Environment Statistics Glossary.

During the 90’s, environment statistics’ programmes also started at
OECD and later at Eurostat, focusing on data collection and indicator
development.

After Rio 92, and also to respond to an increase in the need for
monitoring the environment, many developing countries started work
to develop sustainable development and environmental indicators and
inform on the state of the environment at the national level.

In the late 1990’s UNSD embarked on data collection (1999), and
since then it has been established on a biennial basis.

In 2000 most countries signed the Millennium Declaration and
committed themselves to reach the declaration’s goals and targets by
2015, including Goal 7 on environmental sustainability, using 10
globally agreed environmental indicators to monitor progress.

Around year 2000, two other Regional Commissions (ECLAC and
ESCAP) started to work on environment statistics, supporting capacity
building and training within their regions. ESCWA and ECA also started
to work on environment statistics subsequently.
 A history …. cont

UNSD has work by technically assisting member countries and
contributing to capacity building in environment statistics through
the organization of several technical assistance missions, training
workshops, meetings and seminars about environmental statistics
and indicators at the international, regional and national levels.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg,
2002) put the emphasis on reaching specific targets in specific
time frames and monitoring progress, thus reaffirming the need
for statistics, indicators and integrated information systems that
measure and track progress.

In 2010, UNSD and a group of experts were asked by the
Statistical Commission to start the revision of the FDES and to
develop a Core Set of Environment Statistics to provide guidance
to countries, this work is expected to be finalized during 2012.

Emerging environmental issues (climate change, biodiversity loss,
desertification, food security) and the international conventions
and agreements with accompanying special data requirements
have influenced the production of environment statistics.

Preparations for the UN Summit on SD, Rio+20 (Brazil, June
2012) with emphasis on green economy in the context of
sustainable development and poverty eradication.

Ecosystem assessments, climate negotiations and discussions of
measuring progress about sustainable development and green
economy are recent developments that have influenced current
work in environment statistics.
 Environment Statistics so far
• Environment Statistics is an emerging statistics domain
• Faces considerable challenges and resource limitations
• It is very important from the policy side
• Demand is continuously growing everywhere
• Heterogeneous level of development and production among
countries
• Even in countries that have not started regular production of Env
Stats, there are data to be mined from traditional and non traditional
sources
• There are technical resources available, including methodological,
networking and information for capacity building
• Requires further institutional strengthening and regular resources
allocated, particularly in developing countries
• Increasing collaboration among national, regional and global bodies
Thank you for your
attention

United Nations Statistics Division

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/environment/