Environmental accounts: structure and preparation
International practices for the preparation of environmental accounts are based on the System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounts (SEEA) which consists of a variety of environmental satellite accounts that have been produced in the context of the system of national accounts.
Three types of accounts are currently relevant for environmental accounting in Austria:
Monetary accounts
In monetary accounts, data already included in the system of national accounts are broken down further by specific criteria. Environmentally relevant flows of funds are used to analyse the effects of environmental policy on the economy. These environmental monetary accounts include environmentally related transfers, environmental protection expenditures and environmental goods and services sector (EGSS).
Physical accounts
Physical accounts cover those material and energy flows that run through an economy within a given period of time, as well as all material assets of that economy. Accordingly, a distinction is made between flow and asset accounts.
In Austria, physical flow accounts include material flow accounts and their analysis, energy accounts, air emission accounts, water accounts and waste accounts.
Physical asset accounts are currently not compiled in Austria.
Hybrid accounts
To develop accounting systems for sustainable development, national accounts systems need to be extended to include external environmental and social costs.
Hybrid accounts are a suitable tool in this context. The name ‘hybrid’ comes from the fact that they include data from two different systems (environment and economy) with a standard classification.
