What is the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA)?
The System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) is the globally accepted international standard for natural capital accounting (which is also known as environmental-economic accounting).
It provides a framework for explaining the relationship between the environment and the economy.
The UN led the development of the framework so that it works with standard economic and financial accounts.
Using the SEEA, countries and organisations can:
- organise data about natural capital
- measure ecosystem services, like the way that an ecosystem cleans the air and filters our water
- track changes in ecosystem assets, like the degradation of native forests
- link data and information to economic and other human activity
- manage environmental risk
- improve decision making.
The international standard for natural capital accounting
The UN developed the Central Framework of the SEEA in 2012. IDEEA Group Directors, Carl Obst (Lead Editor) and Mark Eigenraam, were instrumental in the development of the SEEA and continue to play an ongoing advisory role to the UN.
The SEEA principles are recognised as the world’s most cost-effective, actionable approach to natural capital accounting.
Currently, 92 countries have compiled SEEA accounts. Many more countries are planning to compile accounts using this standard.
In 2023, the United States, Canada and Australia announced that they will embark on a joint approach to natural capital accounting using the SEEA. You can read the agreement here.
This is a game changer for business and government in the USA, Canada and Australia. It sets the direction for the future, making the rules clearer and establishing greater certainty for emerging markets. It can also put an end to greenwashing. Once everyone knows which set of rules applies, the ability to apply the rules increases, as does identifying organisations that break them.
