Approaches to Environmental Accounting: Proceedings of the IARIW Conference on Environmental Accounting, Baden (near Vienna), Austria, 27–29 May 1991

542 Pages·1993·1.67 MB·English

Approaches to Environmental Accounting
Contributions to Economics
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Alfred Franz
Carsten Stahmer (Eds.)
Approaches
Environmental
to
Accounting
Proceedings of the IARIW Conference on
Environmental Accounting,
Baden (near Vienna), Austria
27 -29 May 1991
With 37 Figures
Physica-Verlag
A Springer-Verlag Company
Series Editor
Werner A. Muller
Peter Schuster
Editors
Professor Dr. Alfred Franz
Austrian Central Statistical Office
Hintere Zollamtsstrasse 2b
A-I033 Vienna, Austria
Dr. Carsten Stahmer
Federal Statistical Office of Germany
Gustav-Stresemann-Ring 11
0-65189 Wiesbaden, Germany
ISBN 978-3-7908-0719-6 ISBN 978-3-642-49977-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-49977-7
CIP-Titelaufnahme der Deutschen Bibliothek
Approaches to environmental accounting: proceedings of the
IARIW Conference on Environmental Accounting, Baden (near
Vienna), Austria, 27 -29 May 1991 I Alfred Franz; Carsten
Stahmer (ed.). - Heidelberg: Physica-Verl., 1993
(Contributions to economics)
ISBN-13: 978-3-7908-0719-6
NE: Franz, Alfred [Hrsg.); Conference on Environmental Accounting
<1991, Baden, Wienerwald>; International Association for Research in
Income and Wealth
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Foreword
It is really no longer necessary to stress the importance of availing of sound statistical information on the
environment. Originally .limited to circles of insiders and experts this message has now fully reached
political decision makers and the general public at large. In this procedure macro-economics has as-
sumed a particular role, e.g. when evaluating related financial implications but also when propagating
alarming overall figures on the harm this generation is doing to our environment.
Accordingly, the need is o!>vious to further promote the development of international standards and co-
operation in the field of environment statistics in general and environmental economic accounts in par-
ticular.
Therefore, the AiJstrian Statistical Society (ASS) together with the Austrian Central Statistical Office
(ACSO) with pleasure hosted the IARIW Special Conference on Environmental Economic Accounts, in
May 1991. These institutions are similarly pleased that now this publication on the proceedings of this
Conference can be presented. They connect this with grateful thanks to all those who contributed to the
successful completion of this work, in particular the authors and the editors.
The impression seems warranted that the outcome of this coordinated overall endeavour was more than
just better mutual understanding, viz. something like an increasing consciousness of the common de-
nominator tending to expand.
The Chairmen of the Austrian Statistical Society
E. Bader R. Viertl
President, Prof., University of Technology Vienna,
Austrian Cegtral Head of ASS's WP on
Statistical Office Environmental Statistics
CONTENTS
Seite
A. Franz, C. Stahmer
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 1
Henry M. Peskin
NATIONAL ACCOUNTING FOR RESOURCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION:
ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES AND CONCEPTS .................................................................................. 18
Roefie Hueting
CALCULATING A SUSTAINABLE NATIONAL INCOME:
A PRACTICAL SOLUTION FOR A THEORETICAL DILEMMA ............................................................. 39
R.G. Michaels, A.E. Grambsch, H.M. Peskin
NEITHER FISH NOR FOWL? CAN ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTS GUIDE ECONOMIC POLICY,
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, BOTH OR NEITHER?
CONCLUSIONS FROM A UNITED STATES CASE STUDY ................................................................... 70
Anthony M. Friend
TOWARDS PLURALISM IN NATIONAL ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS ...................................................... 93
Mike D. Young
NATURAL RESOURCE ACCOUNTING:
SOME AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS ............................................................. 111
Robert U. Ayres
MATERIALS/ENERGY FLOWS AND BALANCES
AS A COMPONENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL STATISTICS ................................................................... 126
A.J. de Boo, P.R. Bosch, C.N. Gorter, S.J. Keuning
AN ENVIRONMENTAL MODULE AND THE COMPLETE SYSTEM OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS ...... 143
John M. Hartwick
NOTES ON ECONOMIC DEPRECIATION OF NATURAL RESOURCE STOCKS
AND NATIONAL ACCOUNTING ........................................................................................................... 167
Thomas K.Rymes
SOME THEORETICAL PROBLEMS IN ACCOUNTING FOR SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION ......... 199
Jonathan Levin
VALUATION AND TREATMENT OF DEPLETABLE RESOURCES
IN THE NATIONAL ACCOUNTS .......................................................................................................... 220
Salah EI Serafy
DEPLETABLE RESOURCES: FIXED CAPITAL OR INVENTORIES? .................................................... 245
Gonzague Pillet
ACCOUNTING FOR THE CONTRIBUTION OF ENVIRONMENTS
TO ECONOMIC MACROPROZESSES .................................................................................................. 259
VIII
R. Dell'mour, P. Fleissner, W. Hofkirchner, A. Steurer
SUBSTITUTION OF TRANSPORT ACTIVITIES: AN INPUT-OUTPUT APPROACH
TO DETERMINE ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ....................................................... 282
Josef Richter
ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING: SOME NON-TECHNICAL REMARKS ......................................... 295
Bent Thage
THE NATIONAL ACCOUNTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT .................................................................... 314
Karine Nyborg
NECO DOMESTIC PRODUCT": THE ANSWER TO WHICH QUESTION? ............................................ 337
Utz P. Reich
APPLYING THE NOTIONS OF CAPITAL AND INCOME
TO NATURAL DEPLETABLE RESOURCES IN ECONOMIC ACCOUNTS .......................................... 348
J. Blazejcak, D. Edler
A STYLIZED MODEL FOR CALCULATING AVOIDANCE COSTS ...................................................... 365
A. Franz, N. Rainer
CLASSIFICATION IN ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING:
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRESENT STATE ................. ., ........................... :. ........................... 379
A. Giannone, M. Carlucci
ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES IN NATIONAL ACCOUNTS: A CASE STUDY FOR ITALy ............. 394
Stephan Fickl
ENVIRONMENT IN A NATIONAL ACCOUNTS FRAMEWORK:
THE AUSTRIAN APPROACH TO ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING ................................................ 406
Jinchang Li
CHINA'S RESEARCH ON RESOURCE ACCOUNTING AND ITS APPLICATION
TO THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC ACCOUNTING SYSTEM ................................................................ 427
A. Aaheim, O. Lone, K. Nyborg
NATURAL RESOURCE ACCOUNTING: THE NORWEGIAN EXPERIENCE ........................................ 446
Leo Kolltola
NATIONAL RESOURCE ACCOUNTING IN FINLAND .......................................................................... 458
M. Fischer-Kowalski, H. Haberl, H. Payer, A. Steurer, H. Zangerl-Weisz
CAUSER-RELATED INDICATORS FOR STRESSES UPON THE ENVIRONMENT.
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL SATELLITE-SYSTEM OF THE AUSTRIAN SNA ..... 475
P. Bartelmus, J. van Tongeren
SELECTED ISSUES IN INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMIC ACCOUNTING ..................... 488
Carsten Stahmer
SYSTEM FOR INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC ACCOUNTING (SEEA)
OF THE UNITED NATIONS ................................................................................................................. 511
ANNEX
MAILING ADDRESSES OF AUTHORS. ............................................................................................. 541
INTRODUCTION
1. Preliminaries
Still young, the history of National Accounts (NA) as a worldwide applied system has achieved
overwhelming progress, by extending the scope and increasing the detail as well as by in
tensifying the reporting frequency. At the same time old issues of theoretical controversy have
been successively clarified and, if not solved, often settled by compromise. It has proved most
productive with regard to the presentation of economic agents in terms of transactors and their
activities in terms of transactions, whereas developments in functional terms and cross sec
tion presentations beyond the borders drawn by the economic paradigma are still somewhat
lagging. All this is particularly true with a view to a subject like the environment, with wides
pread but often less obvious reference points in the system itself, and often complicated in
terrelations with contexts not covered by traditional economic statistics at all. While since
about 20 years the environment has been increasingly addressed as a concern of NA, this
development did not keep pace with the accelerating deterioration on the part of the environ
ment itself nor with an increasing demand of the political actors for more purposeful overall
information of this kind. Many different reasons on the part of scientific and statistical mana
gement as well as on the part of involved socio-economic;: interests have resulted into a variety
of response which can not be fully pursued here. However, one particular reason for a new
decisive initiative can easily be quoted. The revision of the UN's System of National Accounts
(SNA 1968) and the concomitant" intention to support the revised system by additional "Ma
nuals", preferably in fields with urgent needs for statistical standardization and progress of
concept like the environment, the Statistical Division of the United Nations (UNSTAT) itself had
commissioned the work on a Draft Manual on a System for Integrated Environmental & Eco
nomic Accounting (SEEA). Most distinguished in the field of scientific evaluation of concepts
2
of NA and its vicinities the IARIW, at the same time, recognized that it should playa particular
role in this development. With broad support by the various international organizations inte
rested as well as its immediate membership at the 21st General Conference, Lahnstein (Ger
many). 20 - 25 August 1991, the decision was taken that a Special Conference should be ar
ranged to discuss the whole field of environmental accounting, tnus supporting the drafting of
the before-mentioned Manual.
It seemed most important that this Conference should become representative as regards the
range of theoretical positions as well as practical exercises attempted so far. To be sufficiently
productive with a view to contributions useful for the Manual it seemed at the same time im
portant that the number of participants would not be too large and more or less homogeneous
as regards their reputation in this discipline. It was felt that these aims could be more easily
achieved by the principle that each participant should be (co-)author of a paper or otherwise
involved by a particular function, as session organizer or as discussant. (The organizers where
responsible for the selection of the individual contributions.) From the beginning it was envi
saged that the proceedings of this Conference should be published to provide the greatest
possible audience to this event.
2. Organization and contents
The Conference was organized in 6 sessions, each with a set of invited and contributed pa
pers, presented by a discussant rather than by the author and later on discussed generally,
as usual. The structure by sessions was as follows:
(1) Concepts of Environmental Accounting (General Aspects)
(2) Physical data and their links to national accounts
(3) Depletable resources and their valuation
(4) Estimation of environmental degradation and its welfare effects
(5) Experiences in developed countries
(6) Experiences in developing countries
However, for the present publication, this order has not been maintained, for several reasons:
First, the attribution to sessions was often a bit arbitrary, due to inherent overlapping and un-
3
clear borderlines; secondly, the discussion and in particular the use of the argument with a
view to the Manual sometimes led to different evaluations; thirdly, not all authors were pre
pared to redo their papers for publication; lastly, a possible parallel, selective publication of
similar substance in the Review of Income and Wealth (the IARIW's quarterly) had to be taken
into account also. Therefore, a new ordering was defined, more or less following the great
blocks of theoretical positions taken and related empirical exercises. Still then, a variety of
further criteria can be taken into account as attempted in the below overview, together with
the names of the authors. (see Diagram)
This presentation may serve as a first guide to find out pOints (blocks) of particular interest,
or preliminarily allocate to the various purposes in a greater context. The lasting main issues
of economic environmental accounting are several, as follows: What should be taken into ac
count (in terms of transactors, stocks and nows)? How can, and should, this be measured (in
technical terms of statistical observation)? How should the interactions of the economy and the
environment be represented (in terms of a model)? Answers on all these questions can be
found in this book, although not unanimous and from different pOints of view as regards main
concerns of interest, but with a large common denominator: the moral consternation about the
progressive using up of environmental assets, not being unequivocally represented in our
accounts; and the professional strive for a proper solution of the many theoretical and tech
nical questions and relations involved. In such situation and with a view to the present state
of the arts it may still seem to be more appropriate to show a variety of opinions rather than
apodictically to put forward 'only true" solutions.
The criteria considered in the above mentioned overview presentation are on the one hand the
main attitude towards changes of the present SNA "to take into account" the environment. This
may be a willingness either to adapt or to extend the system (or to do both) in order to inte
grate environmental aspects primarily by attaching values to objects or processes not repre
sented in the present SNA, that way renecting in monetary terms what happens to (and
through) the environment. Obviously, there are different degrees of how far to proceed with
such amendments and, accordingly, different types of "progressivity". Such valuations, any-