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Economic Activities referentials
Emissions can be limited to either geographical areas or economic activities. It is crutial to identify proper activities referential in order to compare on data source to another one, and be able ultimately to quantify properly GHG emission sources. Inventories, as for example submitted to the UNFCCC, cover geographical areas (akin to energy balances), while accounts cover economic activities (akin to energy accounts) (UNSD, 2018).
Accounts must be adjusted for the activities of foreign nationals and companies within the territory (e.g. emissions from tourists driving cars), and activities of nationals and national companies in other territories. Accounts follow the definitions of the System of National Accounts, used, among other things, for calculating gross domestic product (GDP; European Commission, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations, and World Bank, 2009).
SEEA Framework (link to the central framework):
The SEEA Central Framework is an international statistical standard for measuring the environment and its relationship with the economy. The Central Framework covers measurement in three main areas:
- Environmental flows. The flows of natural inputs, products and residuals between the environment and the economy, and within the economy, both in physical and monetary terms. SEEA illustrative environmental flow
- Stocks of environmental assets. The stocks of individual assets, such as water or energy assets, and how they change over an accounting period due to economic activity and natural processes, both in physical and monetary terms.
- Economic activity related to the environment. Monetary flows associated with economic activities related to the environment, including spending on environmental protection and resource management, and the production of ‘environmental goods and services’.