Economic Indicators Environmental Accounts

Enviromental Accounts

The Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR) has compiled the first Costa Rican Environmental Accounts for Water, Forest and Energy. With these accounts, the physical and economic value of natural resources, as well as their relevance for national wealth, can be quantified in an integral manner. They likewise generate a series of indicators to analyze the supply and uses of natural resources and their interactions with various economic activities in the country, contributing to decision making in public policies.

The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) is the international statistical standard officially recognized in 2012 as an internationally validated conceptual framework to measure interactions between the economy and the environment. There is a direct relationship between the SEEA and the System of National Accounts of 2008 (SNA). The SNA is the main source of concepts, definitions and accounting norms on which the SEEA is based. It is a satellite accounting system which revolves around the SNA foundations. The SEEA includes the Energy, Water, Fishery Resources, Land and Ecosystems, and Agricultural sub-systems.

The development of the first accounts has been carried out with support from the World Bank through the WAVES (Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services) initiative. In addition, support was received from a National Excecutive Committee (CDN) made up of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), the Ministry of Finance (MH), the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy (MIDEPLAN) and the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC).

The Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR) has created an Area of Environmental Statistics in its Economic Division which will continue to prepare Environmental Accounts, which will be updated and published every year.

Statistical tables and working documents with the first results of the accounts are published in this site. This information will be useful for designing policies and strategies for sustainable development in areas such as energy management and water resources, monitoring of forests and their services, and their interrelation with the economy.

• Environmental Accounts Presentation

Water Accounts

The water accounts available for CostaRica show the interaction of the economy with the environment in terms ofthe use of water for human consumption and for incorporation into thedifferent productive processes.

The accounts include supply and usetables in physical and monetary terms, which show the different uses ofwater within the economy. Theyalso include an asset account which accounts for changes in the country'sstock of internal renewable water resources. From these tables a sequenceof accounts and key indicators are derived as tools to support decisionmaking processes related to the integral management of the waterresource.

Forest Accounts

The forest accounts available for Costa Rica serve as an information tool to contextualize the state of the country's forest assets by providing a technical mechanism for decision-making processes. For example, the land cover matrices incorporated in the forest accounts are useful to understand the changes in forest cover through time, as well as to determine where those changes originated and their corresponding transformation. This type of analysis allows for improvements in forest development planning (with potential co-benefits in land-use planning) and for better management of the resource in the long term.

Additionally, the forest accounts allows to elucidate the use of the forest as a commercial asset. The structure of the account directly shows forests as input suppliers for the production of intermediate and final products.

Energy Accounts

The energy accounts available for Costa Rica focus on the use of energy in physical terms according to the different economic activities responsible for its use, allowing to identify relative energy intensities and variations in energetic efficiency.

The accounts show the use of primary energy (directly retrieved from natural resources) and secondary energy (energy products offered by other economic sectors) in a combined way, accounting for their use one time only: when the energy is consumed.

From the physical energy use account, the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions account is calculated, showing the emissions generated by the consumption of energy products in each economic activity. These emissions are presented in gross terms; thus, emission reductions generated by other activities in an equivalent way are not recorded in this account.

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Material Flow Account

Costa Rica's Material Flow Account measures the physical relationship between the economy and the environment through an aggregate overview, in tons, of the economy's material inputs and outputs, including inputs from the environment, and flows of materials to the environment as well as the physical quantities of imports and exports (Eurostat and UNSD, 2017).

When creating this account, the methodology proposed in the System of Economic and Environmental Accounting – Central Framework (SEEA - CF) is followed, which is in turn is supported by a technical note developed to improve implementation of the material flow accounting approach. In addition, the “Economy-wide material flow accounts: Handbook" is used, which provides guidelines for data collection and possible applications.

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Environmental Protection Expenditure Account – Private Sector

The environmental protection expenditure account allows the measurement of the extent of commitment to environmental protection. This account records expenses incurred by the country's private sector, with the principal objective of preventing, reducing and eliminating pollution and other forms of environmental degradation. It is measured solely in monetary terms, and is prepared following the methodology proposed by the System of Economic and Environmental Accounting (SEEA).

The account includes a breakdown of current expenses and investments in the area of environmental protection, as well as a breakdown of expenses according to environmental domain (i.e., the aspect of the environment that is to be protected). It also makes it possible to determine levels of employment for environmental activities within companies.

Editor de contenido ‭[3]‬

Material Flow Account​

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Environmental Protection Expenditure Account – Private Sector

Material Flow Account