EUROPEAN COMMISSION EUROSTAT Directorate E: Sectoral and regional statistics Unit E-3: Environmental statistics and accounts Doc. ENV/DIMESA/PREP/12 (2010) Original in EN Draft Minutes Preparatory Meeting of the DIMESA Director's Meeting on "Environmental statistics and accounts" Meeting of 11 March 2010 BECH building Room B2/404
1. Welcome and introductory statement Mr. Pedro Díaz-Muñoz, Director and chairman, welcomed the participants: Jan Hendrik Voet (BE), Miroslav Hajek (CZ), Michael KUHN (DE), Bruno Trégouët (FR), Cesare Constantino (IT), Alexandra Wegscheider-Pichler (AT), Viveka Palm (SE), John Custance (UK). European Environment Agency: Jock Martin, OECD: Myriam Linster, Eurostat: Gilles Decand, Julio Cabeça, Julie Hass, Christian Heidorn, Daniel Rase. 2. Adoption of the agenda The agenda was adopted. 3. Draft regulation on European Environmental Economic Accounts: next steps Julio Cabeça made a presentation of document ENV/DIMESA/PREP/03 (2010). Positive comments were made on the development of modules for energy accounts and environmental goods and services sector. It was stressed that a good balance between maturity of modules and political relevance should be considered. Modules should not be brought up to next revision round only on the basis of their maturity but also on their importance in the political agenda. Policy relevance of some modules can be stressed in the explanatory memorandum. Political relevance relates more to potential than actual use of Environmental Accounts. France volunteered to contribute to a document showing the usefulness of EPEA and EGSS. The development of the legal base on Environmental Accounts has also to be seen from the users perspective. New political documents like EU2020 can help in establishing strategic political priorities. Adaptation costs for climate change is one of the hot topics coming and it was suggested to establish a reflection group. The EEA suggested that Environmental Accounts can be helpful for budgetary analysis and define the next financial perspectives. When thinking about bringing new modules to the legal basis, one should also think about budget cuts that are occurring more and more at NSIs' level. In some cases, legal base can be a solution to require more resources, in other cases, it just represents an additional amount of work without necessarily increase in resources devoted to this work. The possibility of reviving the documents on Policy Reviews was raised. Domains to review are all where we have to work, e.g. GDP and beyond, climate change, biodiversity. In these documents, we should also ask for a mandate to develop some work, which requires clear ideas of where we want to go. There was a general agreement on the necessity to make progress and to further discuss the choice of modules to be developed. The members supported this point to be brought to next DIMESA meeting for discussion. Members also suggested to further develop the policy relevance of the new modules as well as their methodological readiness. A structured matrix crossing political relevance and methodological readiness should be used to present the information. Eurostat will prepare a new version of the document and, together with DG ENV will highlight the political relevance. 2
4. Revision of the Waste Statistics Regulation 4.1. Import / Export of waste The meeting of the Waste Statistics Working Group took place on 2 and 3 March 2010. The observed difficulties with the original Commission proposal focused on the lack of appropriate data sources and methods for data collection, and on the unclear scope of the reporting requirement. In order to tackle these issues, possible options of simplification of the reporting scope and on methodological aspects were presented during this meeting. 3 options for simplification: o Restrict the number of waste categories to a maximum of 10; o Limit the reporting to exports only; o Limit the reporting to exports leaving the EU 27 territory. Methods for data collection: o Workshops or new pilot studies could be carried out focusing on the development of alternative methods for data collection. After the discussion with the Member States, the following conclusions were made: Developing statistics on import and export of waste will remain in the Eurostat work programme; There will be no new legal proposal in the short term; A workshop will be organised in Autumn 2010 to prepare for a voluntary data collection; Eurostat will investigate other data sources (e-prtr, Annex 7 of Waste Shipment Regulation or others). The participants welcomed the idea of the organisation of a workshop. It should be opened to all the countries interested to participate. The voluntary questionnaire on import and export of waste should be linked to the waste section of the OECD/Eurostat Joint Questionnaire. 4.2. Other items The timetable for the revision of the Waste Statistics Regulation was presented: The proposal has been agreed at the DIMESA meeting in November 2009; The internal consultation within the Commission has started; The document will be submitted to the ESSC meeting in May 2010 (Comitology item); The revised Regulation will be applicable to the 2010 data collection (data transmitted in June 2012). 3
5. GDP and Beyond In his presentation, Pedro Díaz-Muñoz informed members of the activities currently running at Eurostat level. He focused on the work of: o An internal Coordination Group aiming at coordinating the activities performed at Eurostat level (integrating different inputs from different units) o An Interdepartmental Co-ordination Group "GDP and Beyond" established at Commission level preparing an action plan with most important activities. o Sponsorship Group established at ESS level, coordinated by Eurostat and INSEE. It was observed that the document does not contain any mention to sustainability. However, Stiglitz report s chapter 3 is all about sustainability. Therefore, the report should be improved in terms of developing indexes describing sustainability. Participants considered that they should give the document to colleagues from national accounts at NSIs' level and hear from them. This was not possible for this meeting but should be done for DIMESA. Some members referred as confusing the fact that there are so many activities currently running at Eurostat related with this subject. On the other hand it is helpful to know about so many activities going around. It would be good to have synergies between the work of the Stiglitz Commission, the work on GDP and beyond, the upcoming Europe 2020 Strategy, and the work on the revision of the SEEA 2003. There is a close relation between this work and what OECD is doing in three main work streams: o Measuring progress of societies (wellbeing) o Implementation of the Stiglitz recommendations o Development of a 'Green growth strategy' The OECD will be a member of the sponsorship group mentioned above. Recommendations from the Stiglitz Commission are not always found very clear. However, a clear recommendation from the Stiglitz Commission is to have a short list of indicators and this should be kept in mind in future developments of this work. EEA informed about the project on a fast-track implementation plan for ecosystem accounts and the close relations with the work on GDP and beyond. In a first step, this project will look at the development of ecosystem accounts at EU level. As to which concerns monetary modules, remediation costs will be considered. This point should be brought to DIMESA for discussion and for seeing how countries understand this and how this has consequences in countries work and how countries can contribute. The high political relevance of this issue was stressed. A more elaborated document should be presented to the DIMESA. The objectives should be better explained, actions should be more detailed, and the burden should be made transparent. Emphasis should be put on short term plans and on picking up things currently going on. Enough time should be dedicated to this point. 6. SEIS Progress Report 4
As DG ENV was not present, no additional information on SEIS could be conveyed to the Preparatory DIMESA meeting. Jan Voet gave a presentation on a workshop about SEIS that will be organised by the Belgium Presidency in Brussels between 30 November and 2 December 2010. This initiative was very much appreciated. This point should be brought to DIMESA for information. DG ENV will be contacted and invited to make a presentation in DIMESA about the state of play and future plans for SEIS. Jan Voet was invited to repeat the presentation to the DIMESA members and invite them to attend the workshop. 7. Climate Change related statistics Pedro Díaz-Muñoz introduced this point. He stressed that the document is the result of an internal reflection group at Eurostat level bringing together colleagues from different units. He also raised attention to the fact that the document focus on an inventory of data available (annex 2), and the recommendations focus on the short-to-medium term. An action plan for the short term building up on available data was presented. A better connection of all activities should be further developed. Now that other actors come into scene, dialogue and coordination between DG ENV, DG CLIMA, EEA and Eurostat should be improved. It was observed that a point on adaptation to climate change is missing in the document. However, it is not clear which aspects of adaptation have to be considered: plants adaptation, humans' adaptation, which adaptation, expenditure connected with adaptation. It is perceived that statistics on each of these topics are typically not environmental statistics and accounts. They may be statistics on population, agriculture, fisheries Statistics Sweden informed that they are participating in a study for DG ENV on costs of adaptation. They proposed to create a reflection group to involve Eurostat and other interested countries. EEA suggested that in the short term one should concentrate on impacts of mitigation, whereas on the longer term the focus should be on impacts of adaptation. DG ENV is currently holding a 'Working Group on Knowledge Base on Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation'. The first meeting occurred in Brussels on 3 March 2010. The output of this Working Group is important. This point will be brought to DIMESA for discussion. 8. Statistical Work Programme 2011 Gilles Decand introduced this point. As for last year, it is planned to include in the document for the DIMESA information from other units belonging now to the same directorate in Eurostat (Sectoral and Regional Statistics) A new version of the document will be included in the agenda of DIMESA. 9. Spatial information (LUCAS) 5
Marcel Ernens made a presentation on this topic. He stressed two points: (i) Strategy for setting up an integrated system on land cover/use statistics; and (ii) Dissemination plans for the 2008/2009 LUCAS results. It was considered that LUCAS is a good example of SEIS implementation and that it should serve more and more environmental needs and not only agriculture purposes. However, the data inconsistency between different data sources (in this case, LUCAS and CORINE Land Cover, especially on built-up areas) is worrying and should take all our attention. There is also a section in the Joint Questionnaire OECD/Eurostat on Land Use and Land Cover which has also to be taken into consideration. There is a missing link to INSPIRE and this should be covered in next steps of this work, as well as coordination with Data Centres on Land Use, Soil, Forestry, Water, and Biodiversity. Incorporation of other work around the world (e.g. FAO) should also be considered. The composition and mandate of the advisory group were discussed. This point will be brought to DIMESA for information. 10. Conclusion of the meeting: draft agenda of the next DIMESA It was observed that if we wish to draw the attention of DIMESA audience (high level strategic decisions in the field of environment statistics and accounts), the agenda should be shorter. Points 5, 6 and 7 should be grouped in an ongoing and new business section. Go4 activities, especially on Data Centres, should also be included in the agenda. It could also be interesting to understand countries' expectations and adjust the agenda to take them into consideration. The EEA also informed that a final version of the SOER2010 should be available by 31 May 2010 (ready for translation). A presentation on the results of the SOER 2010 could be made at the DIMESA meeting in June. Belgium informed about other initiatives going around the world, like the WHO that is collecting information on drinking water, and the Group of Earth Observation (GEO). A new version of the agenda will be prepared and sent around for comments. 11. AOB 6