Wealth Accounting and the
Valuation of Ecosystem Services
Publications
The study, "Natural Capital at Risk: The Top 100 Externalities of Business” was commissioned by the TEEB for Business Coalition to identify the world’s largest natural capital risks and opportunities for business and their investors. The report, authored by Trucost, quantifies environmental externalities such as damages from climate change, pollution, land conversion and depletion of natural resources, across business sectors and at a regional level. View More »
The Global Partnership on Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services has made good progress on mainstreaming Natural Capital Accounting in national accounts and development planning. The recent Annual Report summarizes the momentum in five WAVES partner countries: Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, Madagascar, and the Philippines, as well as the widespread global interest in NCA. With the completion of the preparation phase, the five WAVES countries are ready to embark on their four-year work programs to use NCA in addressing their policy challenges. The WAVES partnership is set to expand with more than 60 countries expressing their commitment to NCA. View More » (pdf)
Since income is the return on wealth, the total wealth of any given country should be on the order of 20 times its gross domestic product. Instead the average observed ratio from the balance sheet accounts of the System of National Accounts is a factor of 2.6 to 6.6, depending on whether natural resource stocks are included in the balance sheet. The clear implication is that the System of National Accounts wealth accounts are incomplete, with the most obvious omission being human capital. Estimating the value of human capital using the lifetime income approach for a sample of 13 (mostly high-income) countries yields a mean share of human capital in total wealth of 62 percent -- four times the value of produced capital and 15 times the value of natural capital. But for selected high-income countries in the sample there is still an average of 25 percent of total wealth that is unaccounted - it is neither produced, nor natural, nor human capital. This residual intangible wealth is arguably the "stock equivalent" of total factor productivity - the value of assets such as institutional quality and social capital that augment the capacity of produced, natural and human capital to support a stream of consumption into the future. View More »
This paper responds to the growing demand for integrated environmental–economic information and reflects an emerging maturity within the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) environmental statistics program. This release uses a theme based presentation to showcase the range of ABS environmental accounts which include: Water Account, Australia; Energy Account, Australia; Waste Account, Australia (Experimental Estimates); and others. It also demonstrates the power of these accounts in supporting informed decision making on contemporary environmental issues. View More »
Thirty-five companies now mention ecosystem services in publicly available materials: It is clear that corporate engagement with the issues is on the rise. Business efforts to-date cover a wide spectrum. Some companies have crafted corporate policies of no net, or net positive, impact on ecosystems or ecosystem services. Other firms are exploring the issue and pilot testing analytical tools. Others simply state that they recognize the importance of ecosystem services. Given this wide range of activity, as well as the increasing number of companies that are engaging, it is timely to assess the current state of play on corporate ecosystem services initiatives. This report offers the first opportunity to review corporate engagement with ecosystem services around the world. View More »
The WAVES partnership is leading a Global Action Plan to support a vibrant community of 62 countries, 90 private sector organizations, as well as 17 civil society and international organizations in meeting its commitment to natural capital accounting. View More » (pdf)
The Ecosystem Markets Task Force is a practical, business led review of the business opportunities that arise from valuing nature correctly. The British government asked the Task Force to review the opportunities for UK business from expanding green goods, services, products, investment vehicles and markets which value and protect our natural environment. View More » (pdf)
The Ramsar Secretariat, in partnership with the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Wetlands International, The Convention on Biological Diversity, (CBD), the Helmholtz Centre for Environental Research (UFZ) and the UNEP TEEB Office, have produced a report that builds on the TEEB approach to generate a better understanding of the ecosystem service values of water and wetlands and encourage improved decision making and business commitment for their conservation, investment and wise use. The primary objective of the report is to help identify major gaps and inconsistencies in current knowledge of the economics of water and wetlands, so as to inform agenda-setting for further work on the economics of water and wetlands. View More »
BSR has developed this report to assist businesspeople who are asking questions about ecosystem services. It is intended to help corporate decision-makers understand and assess the current state of play within the ecosystem services tool landscape. The report offers a unique view of the full suite of current tools, highlights opportunities and challenges for their use in the private sector, and lays out ways forward for piloting, verifying, and validating ecosystem services tools. View More »
This report, published by the Office for National Statistics of the UK's Statistics Authority, is a road map for the development of natural capital accounts within the United Kingdom's Environmental Accounts. Download » (pdf)
Moving Beyond GDP (pdf)
This report illustrates how natural capital accounting can be a powerful tool for policy makers grappling with trade-offs in a growing economy. While work is progressing on a methodology for ecosystem valuation, there is an internationally approved method to value some elements of natural capital, like forests, minerals, and water.Some countries are already measuring natural capital or compiling accounts to answer key policy questions. View More » (pdf)
This publication from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) examines a number of complex issues facing policy makers in Australia, such as climate change and natural resource management, and illustrates how environmental accounts can be used to further improve the decision-making process. View More »
The Little Green Data Book is annual compilation of environmental data for more than 200 countries, providing up-to-date information on agriculture, forests and biodiversity, energy and emissions, water and sanitation, environment and health and oceans. The book includes an Adjusted Net Savings indicator—also known as “genuine savings”—which calculates the true rate of savings in an economy after taking into account investments in human capital, depletion of natural resources and damage caused by pollution. View More »
This briefing note was prepared by the United Nations Statistics Division with the aim to introduce the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA) to a broad audience. In particular, it describes how the SEEA can support sustainable development and green economy policies. View More »
Using a wide range of information, this framework provides a structure to compare and contrast source data and allows the development of aggregates, indicators, and trends across a broad sprectrum of environmental and economic issues. View More » (pdf)
In this report, Statistics Netherlands gives an overview of green growth in the Netherlands. It presents the available data for twenty of the thirty indicators proposed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and may serve as a benchmark, as well as a starting point for further discussion. The main conclusion of the report is that the environmental efficiency of production in the
Netherlands has improved. View More »
Netherlands has improved. View More »
Published in 2011, the World Bank book says countries that manage their natural wealth for the long-term move up the development ladder. Close to one third of the wealth of low-income countries comes from their “natural capital” which includes forests, protected areas, agricultural lands, energy and minerals. View More »
This dataset presents a set of "wealth accounts" for over 150 countries for 1995, 2000, and 2005, allowing a longer-term assessment of global, regional, and country performance in building wealth. View More »
This annual progress report, published in October 2011, covers the contineous impact that PEI country programmes have had over the past several years and the progress made in expanding, operationalising and implementing the UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative. View More »
The Environmental Accounts of the Netherlands by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) present a broad quantitative overview of important economic-environmental developments. The environmental accounts provide a systematic description of the relationship between the environment and the economy and can be used for in depth analyses of various types. View More » (pdf)
In The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity’s (TEEB) synthesis report, there are three scenarios: a natural ecosystem (forests), a human settlement (city), and a business sector (mining), to illustrate how the economic concepts and tools described in TEEB can help equip society with the means to incorporate the values of nature into decision-making at all levels. View More »
This book describes estimates of wealth and its components for nearly 120 countries. The book has four sections. The first part introduces the wealth estimates and highlights the level and composition of wealth across countries. The second part analyzes changes in wealth and their implications for economic policy. The third part deepens the analysis by considering the importance of human and institutional capital, and by linking wealth to production. The fourth part reviews existing applications of resource and environmental accounting in developed and developing countries. View More »