According to ECLAC Manual 61, Methodological Guide for developing Environmental and Sustainable Development Indicators in Latin American and Caribbean countries, environmental statistics are statistical series that characterize principal environmental components and their states across space and time. These components span a wide range of domains, including water, air, climate, biota (biodiversity), land use, forests, coastline, marine ecosystems, pollution (of air and sea), solid waste, access to water and basic sanitation, and extreme events and disasters.

Environmental indicators aim to describe and demonstrate environmental conditions and key dynamics, such as: biota and biodiversity, water quantity and quality, air quality, the renewability of the energy supply, the availability and extraction of certain natural resources (forests, fisheries, agriculture), urban pollution, solid waste generation, the use of pesticides, and the frequency and intensity of extreme events.

A virtuous cycle of environmental statistics, indicators, and accounts

ECLAC proposes a synergistic development of environmental statistical products in LAC countries, promoting a virtuous cycle to produce environmental statistics, environmental indicators, and environmental accounts in a way that enables the establishment and integration of an adequate National System of Environmental Statistics (NSES) (Figure 1). For example, if a country wishes to focus its resources on developing summary statistical products such as environmental indicators and/or accounts, these products will require a comprehensive framework of high-quality basic environmental statistics (based on accepted and standardized statistical methodologies and processes) to accurately inform decision-makers about an environmental issue. At the same time, if a country wishes to focus its resources on improving its environmental statistics, this will enable it to strengthen its NSES, and subsequently it will be able to select and develop indicators and/or accounts with greater ease, rigor, and consistency. It is for this reason that ECLAC proposes that NSES systems foster this virtuous cycle.

Figure 1. ECLAC's conception of a virtuous circle of environmental statistics, indicators, and accounts.

This virtuous cycle is theoretically grounded in the principles set forth in the United Nations Framework for the Development of Environmental Statistics (FDES, 2013). As shown in the following figure (Figure 2), the development of environmental statistics based on the FDES enables the integration and transformation of basic data and statistics on environmental phenomena and the interactions between the environment and society, which in turn allows for the construction of other statistical products such as environmental indicators and/or accounts.

To produce environmental accounts, a country requires a robust system of environmental and economic statistics. This statistical product enables the generation of tables (on natural resource assets and on the supply and use of environmental flows) and aggregate economic-environmental indicators at the national level, as well as at various disaggregation levels, such as: by type of economic activity (agriculture, manufacturing, trade, transportation), or by institutional sector (industry, households, government); as well as performing various economic modeling analyses, such as general equilibrium models with environmental variables, and input-output models with physical units for material footprint analyses.

On the other hand, if a country needs to develop environmental indicators directly and focus its resources on a set necessary for its management, it can produce them directly without having to compile environmental accounts. This allows the country to obtain indicators more quickly and with fewer resources (compared to the compilation of environmental accounts, which requires more time and resources) at the national or local level to aid in decision-making and planning, however, it may not be possible to disaggregate the indicators into the aforementioned categories and characteristics.

For this reason, it is important to assess the availability and quality of countries’ environmental statistics, as well as their planning and public policy priorities, to determine the best path for constructing a National Environmental Statistics System (NESS) tailored to each country. ECLAC recommends that countries proceed systematically in these production processes, generating synergies toward the development of an integrated NESS.
 

Figure 2. Relationship between the methodological frameworks of environmental statistics, indicators, and accounts.