System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA)
Context: The NCAVES India Forum 2021, organised by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in a virtual format.
What is the SEEA?
- The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) is a framework that integrates economic and environmental data to provide a more comprehensive and multipurpose view of the interrelationships between the economy and the environment and the stocks and changes in stocks of environmental assets, as they bring benefits to humanity.
- SEEA is described as a satellite system to the United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA).
- It contains the internationally agreed standard concepts, definitions, classifications, accounting rules and tables for producing internationally comparable statistics and accounts.
- The SEEA framework follows a similar accounting structure as the System of National Accounts (SNA).
- The framework uses concepts, definitions and classifications consistent with the SNA in order to facilitate the integration of environmental and economic statistics.
- The SEEA is a multi-purpose system that generates a wide range of statistics, accounts and indicators with many different potential analytical applications.
- It is a flexible system that can be adapted to countries' priorities and policy needs while at the same time providing a common framework, concepts, terms and definitions.