| United Nations | E/CN.17/1997/2/Add.7 |
Economic and Social Council
Distr. GENERAL
21 January 1997
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Fifth session
7-25 April 1997
Overall progress achieved since the United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development
Report of the Secretary-General
Addendum
Integrating environment and development in decision-making*
(Chapter 8 of Agenda 21)
(* The present report was prepared by the Department for Policy
Coordination and Sustainable Development (DPCSD) as task management
chapter 8 of Agenda 21, in accordance with arrangements agreed to by
the Inter-Agency Committee on Sustainable Development (IACSD). It is
the result of consultation and information exchange between United
Nations agencies, international and national organizations, interested
government agencies and a range of other institutions, individuals,
and major group representatives.)
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
INTRODUCTION ............................................... 1 3
I. SELECTING KEY OBJECTIVES ............................. 2 3
II. REPORTING AND ANALYSING SUCCESS ...................... 3 - 13 3
A. National strategies .............................. 4 - 7 3
B. Local Agenda 21s ................................. 8 - 9 5
C. National councils ................................ 10 - 13 6
III. PROMISING CHANGES .................................... 14 - 35 7
A. Regional Agenda 21 initiatives ................... 14 7
B. Use of decision-making and policy tools for
sustainable development .......................... 15 - 28 8
1. Environmental impact assessment .............. 16 - 18 8
2. Indicators for sustainable development ....... 19 - 20 9
3. Environmental management systems ............. 21 9
4. Integrated pollution prevention and control .. 22 - 23 9
5. Pollutant release and transfer registers ..... 24 10
6. Other policy instruments ..................... 25 - 28 10
C. Integrated environmental and economic accounting . 29 - 35 11
IV. UNFULFILLED EXPECTATIONS ............................. 36 - 39 12
A. Sustainable development strategies ............... 36 - 37 12
B. Integrated environmental and economic accounting
at the national level ............................ 38 - 39 14
V. EMERGING PRIORITIES .................................. 40 - 42 14
A. National strategies .............................. 40 - 41 14
B. Strategic environmental assessment ............... 42 15
BOXES
1. Hungary .......................................................... 4
2. Local Agenda 21 initiatives ...................................... 5
3. National councils for sustainable development .................... 6
4. Cameroon ......................................................... 7
5. Baltic Sea and Mediterranean regions ............................. 8
6. Colombia and the Philippines ..................................... 12
INTRODUCTION
1. The present report reviews progress made in the implementation of
the objectives set out in chapter 8 of Agenda 21 (Integrating
environment and development in decision-making), 1/ taking into account
the decisions taken by the Commission on Sustainable Development on
this subject in 1995 and 1996 at its third and fourth sessions.
I. SELECTING KEY OBJECTIVES
2. The overall goal of chapter 8 of Agenda 21 is to integrate
socio-economic and environmental concerns in the decision-making
process with a broad range of public participation. The present
analysis addresses three of the four key objectives of that chapter.
The other, relating to economic instruments, is dealt with in chapters
4 and 33. The first objective is development of integrated and
participatory strategies for sustainable development at the national
level. In this area, progress has been mixed since the Rio Conference
with further steps needed to realize their full potential. The second
is development and use of specific policy-making tools and instruments
that help to integrate environment and development in decision-making,
including environmental impact assessment and indicators. The third
is development and application of integrated environmental and
economic accounting, where some progress has been made at the
international level but much work remains at the national level.
II. REPORTING AND ANALYSING SUCCESS
3. Countries ranging from China and Swaziland to Canada have produced
national sustainable development strategies (NSDSs), national
conservation strategies or environmental action plans. In some
countries, this has been done with the assistance of the World Bank,
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World
Conservation Union (IUCN) and some bilateral donors. Over 40 African
countries have some sort of coordinating mechanism to produce such
plans. Environmental factors have also been incorporated into
macroeconomic strategies. Costa Rica and the Gambia have brought
"green accounting" methods into their policy-making processes while
China, Malawi and the United Republic of Tanzania have supported the
efforts of their planning bodies to incorporate sustainable
development principles into their overall planning efforts, including
the production of national Agenda 21s.
A. National strategies
4. Various planning and policy-making models were already in place at
the close of the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development in 1992. These included conventional national development
plans, national conservation strategies (NCSs) national environmental
action plans (NEAPs) (see box 1), national environmental management
plans, green plans and provincial and state conservation strategies.
Agenda 21 introduced (para. 8.7) the concept of the
national sustainable development strategy (NSDS) whose aim is to
"build upon and harmonize the various sectoral economic, social and
environmental policies and plans that are operating in the country".
The idea is to unify and integrate economic, social and environmental
issues in decision-making by bringing together in the strategy process
governmental ministries and decision makers representing finance,
planning, environment, health and other key ministries as well as
sectors of civil society (major group representatives) who have a
stake in policy outcomes.
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Box 1. Hungary
In Hungary, the first draft of the National Environmental Action
Programme (NEAP) was prepared in February 1996, followed by a wide
debate by non-governmental organizations. The final draft was
submitted to and approved by Parliament in September 1996. The
Programme reflected all the basic recommendations of Agenda 21.
Emphasis was given to sustainable development, policy reforms,
capacity-building, environmental investments in priority areas and
public participation. Also in 1996, a National Environmental Health
Action Plan was established as a complement to the NEAP.
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5. Agenda 21 establishes no set structure for NSDSs and so many of
the existing planning and policy-making processes for environment and
development have been subsumed under this rubric, with environmental
factors in particular being taken up under existing development plans
or existing environment plans (in some cases, expanded to include
broader considerations of economic and social development). While
there is no single model for national strategies and plans, they do
have some common features such as identifying priority environment and
development problems, defining priority actions and following up to
ensure effective implementation.
6. Some countries have developed sectoral or thematic policies that
reflect broader sustainable development concerns. Some have been in
the form of conventional sectoral master plans, which were often
prepared as parts of five-year development plans to coordinate donor
involvement in a particular sector. Other examples of
sectoral/thematic strategies include national plans of action to
combat desertification, national tropical forestry action plans and
coastal zone management policies. In many of these cases, the
sectoral policy is a tool for complying with the requirements of
international commitments.
7. National strategies for sustainable development have been most
successful when going beyond merely consulting a small and selected
group of officials they ensure non-governmental and public
participation in the formulation and implementation process. Public
participation is often secured by involving various major groups in
the decision-making process, especially in national councils for
sustainable development or their equivalents. Public awareness-
raising is important, and non-governmental organizations can play a
key role in this regard.
B. Local Agenda 21s
8. The most significant area of success with strategies and plans is
at the level of cities and municipalities, where local Agenda 21
initiatives have flourished (see box 2). These have been grass-roots
expressions of public concern and involvement rather than top-down
planning exercises. In some cases, local authorities were reluctant
to link their efforts to national action plans for fear that the
agenda would then be imposed upon them from above rather than flow
from local needs. A wide variety of successful cases have been
reported in the last four years on these initiatives. At the third
session of the Commission on Sustainable Development local authorities
presented 14 case studies of local Agenda 21 initiatives from around
the world. Also, an extensive survey of local Agenda 21 initiatives
conducted by the International Council for Local Environmental
Initiatives (ICLEI), in cooperation with the Department for Policy
Coordination on Sustainable Development of the United Nations
Secretariat indicates that more than 1,500 local Governments from 49
countries are pursuing local Agenda 21 action plans through official
planning processes in partnership with the voluntary and private
sectors in their communities. Local Agenda 21 initiatives have
encompassed community-wide consultation processes, formulation and
implementation of local strategies, developing of local sustainability
indicators, new local environmental management systems, concrete
projects with public participation, and so on. In 1996, ICLEI, the
International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) prepared and launched the "Local
Agenda 21 Planning Guide", which is already being used by a number of
municipalities for local-level planning.
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Box 2. Local Agenda 21 initiatives
In Peru, Cajamarca is one of two cities that have developed local
versions of Agenda 21 through the Inter-Institutional Consensus
Building Committee.
Nongkai, Thailand, is one of seven municipalities that participate
in the Urban Environmental Management Guidelines Project. In 1994, it
launched the Local Partnership for Community Land-use Planning which
includes initiation of the process of producing local land-use plans.
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9. In addition, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements
(Habitat) as part of its preparations for the United Nations
Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) developed, in cooperation
with other partners, an extensive database of "best practices" related
to sustainable development at the local level which is now available
on the Internet. Local-level strategies and plans have proved more
successful than many of those at the national level in terms of making
a direct impact.
C. National councils
10. A substantial number of countries (150) have established national-
level commissions or coordinating mechanisms designed to develop an
integrated approach to sustainable development and to include a wide
range of civil society sectors in the process of agenda-setting and
strategy-building. This has been especially true of developing
countries and countries with economies in transition that have
traditions of national planning. While some of these institutions
existed prior to 1992, more than 90 per cent have been established in
response to the Rio Conference. In other cases, longer-standing
bodies, including the traditional type of environmental ministry, have
been restructured in a manner consistent with Agenda 21.
11. Many of the councils are governmental bodies or bodies closely
linked to the Governments (see box 3). The essential task of almost
all of these bodies is coordination of actions related to environment
and development, in most cases at different levels (national, local).
Approximately half of the councils are in charge of formulation of a
policy or national strategy for sustainable development; part of them
are explicitly in charge of implementation and enforcement of national
strategies for sustainable development.
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Box 3. National councils for sustainable development
Typical composition
(a) Governmental ministries and agencies only (multisectoral,
sectoral)
(b) Parastatal/multi-stakeholders
(c) Major groups, particularly non-governmental organizations
Typical functions
(a) Decision-making
(b) Policy formulation
(c) Policy implementation and enforcement
(d) Policy analysis and evaluation
(e) Focal point for coordination at different levels
(f) Advisory
(g) Collection of information and data, dissemination
(h) Reporting to the Commission on Sustainable Development and/or
government
(i) Mobilization of resources and funds
(j) Discussion and consultation forum
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12. In almost all countries, at least one ministry is participating in
a council for sustainable development or has a department in charge of
coordination of sustainable development at the governmental level (see
box 4). Nearly all of the newly installed councils include the
participation of the public, academics, or private sector or other
non-governmental institutions.
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Box 4. Cameroon
After the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MINEF) was
created with the primary task of formulating appropriate environment
policy and strategies. At the level of the Prime Minister's Office, a
National Commission on Sustainable Development has been established to
bring together representatives from ministries, non-governmental
organizations and the business community. A coordination unit (CU)
within MINEF is responsible for the coordination of the implementation
of the National Environmental Management Plan. At the local level,
one Technical Regional Committee (TRC) in each province, in
cooperation with CU, is charged with the overall coordination of
sectoral activities. TRCs act on a highly participatory level,
involving representatives of various ministries, non-governmental
organizations and grass-roots organizations.
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13. Various international organizations, for example, UNEP, the World
Bank, UNDP, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the
Organization of American States (OAS), various development banks, and
non-governmental organizations, assist countries in assessing the
status of the environment, in building capacities within the countries
to create national sustainable development strategies, and in
promoting networking among countries in the same region. The agents
for these support activities include national councils and the
sustainable development advisers currently designated by UNDP in more
than 40 countries around the world.
III. PROMISING CHANGES
A. Regional Agenda 21 initiatives
14. In the last two years, there has been an increase in the number of
regional initiatives undertaken to formulate regional strategies of
sustainable development, and action plans and to establish mechanisms
for regional cooperation in implementing such initiatives (see box 5).
These initiatives have often been launched as the result of summit or
ministerial meetings. These initiatives are intended to translate
global issues into regional ones, to provide a forum for regional
cooperation and to promote networking among various national and local
constituencies. Another feature is the involvement of non-State
actors like local authorities and non-governmental organizations.
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Box 5. Baltic Sea and Mediterranean regions
Agenda 21 for the Baltic Sea region
A regional Agenda 21 for the Baltic Sea region is being developed,
to be completed by spring 1998. It is to be built on the earlier
Environmental Action Programme coordinated by the Helsinki Commission.
The Plan will be implemented by different sectors of the member
countries on the basis of an agreed division of labour.
Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development
The Commission was established in 1996 to (a) identify, evaluate
and assess major economic, ecological and social problems set out in
Agenda 21 for the region and to make proposals to the contracting
parties and (b) to enhance regional cooperation and rationalize the
intergovernmental decision-making capacity in the Mediterranean basin
for the integration of environment and development issues.
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B. Use of decision-making and policy tools
for sustainable development
15. One area of promising change relates to the increasing use by
Governments, the private sector and other major groups of integrative
decision-making tools. These are economic and policy instruments that
aid the process of integrating environment and development in
decision-making. While they do not by themselves constitute a
strategy, they do help decision makers achieve and measure progress
towards sustainable development goals and targets. Among the
decision-making tools that have been particularly widely developed and
used are the following.
1. Environmental impact assessment
16. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) started as a means to ensure
that the environmental impact of projects and programmes was properly
assessed during project planning and implementation. It is
increasingly being seen and used as a continuous decision-making tool
for integrating the biophysical and socio-economic aspects into
development plans and policies. It is used by a wide variety of
international organizations, financial institutions, government
offices and non-governmental organizations. It is now no doubt one of
the most widely used tools for sustainable development
decision-making.
17. Since EIA was introduced at the national level for the first time
more than 25 years ago, more than 70 per cent of countries have
adopted laws and regulations requiring EIAs. In addition, mandatory
or informal procedures of impact assessment for governmental
activities have been developed in many countries. As reported in
chapter 6 of Agenda 21, however, more needs to be done to incorporate
health aspects into overall environmental impact assessment.
18. Strategic environmental assessment (SEA), a new technique of
impact assessment, has gained attention in some developed countries in
the last five years. Compared with EIA whose focus has mainly been on
projects, SEA aims at the identification of the cumulative
consequences of policies, governmental programmes and plans with
impact on the environment, the economy and social development. 2/
2. Indicators of sustainable development
19. The growing use of indicators reflects the recognition that
indicators are an essential tool for decision-making, for
understanding and monitoring trends and for judging the effectiveness
of policies and actions. Many Governments, non-governmental
organizations and international organizations have contributed
substantially to the development of indicators of sustainable
development. The Commission on Sustainable Development for its part
launched a global process to draw upon these initiatives and make use
of their collective expertise and knowledge to arrive at consensus
with regard to technical validity, comparability and political
acceptability of indicators.
20. The Commission on Sustainable Development approved a programme of
work and called upon the organizations of the United Nations system,
with the support of other intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations, and through the coordination of the Department for
Policy Coordination on Sustainable Development of the United Nations
Secretariat, to implement the programme of work. As a result of the
programme and wide cooperation within and outside the United Nations
system, a core set of indicators were identified followed by
preparation of methodology sheets for each of the indicators. The
book Indicators of Sustainable Development: Framework and
Methodologies, 3/ was published in October 1996 as a significant
milestone leading to the establishment of national indicator
programmes.
3. Environmental management systems
21. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14000
series reported in detail under chapter 34, the European Union's
Environment Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) and a number of
national environmental management system (EMS) standards have
contributed to increasing the adoption of environmental management
systems by the business sector in developed and developing countries.
Additionally, many Governments are working towards developing
legislation or national EMSs that closely mirror the ISO 14000 and
EMAS standards in order to facilitate compliance with regulations as
well as international standard certification requirements.
4. Integrated pollution prevention and control
22. Integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC) provides for
integrated environmental management in all environmental media
simultaneously. By evaluating the total emissions from a facility,
the transfer of pollution from one (strictly controlled) medium to
another (non-controlled or less-controlled) medium is avoided. The
use of IPPC is accomplished, inter alia, with integrated permits and
the observation of the entire life cycle of products.
23. While few countries have fully introduced IPPC, most Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries have
implemented elements of an integrated pollution prevention system in
their national policies and legislation. Successful introduction of
IPPC methods at the national level can be achieved with regulations
and institutional changes that abandon the media-specific approach.
5. Pollutant release and transfer registers
24. Pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs) are being
designed or are already in use in most OECD countries, as well as in
some non-OECD countries, for example South Africa and Egypt. PRTR is
a catalogue or register of potentially harmful pollutant releases or
transfers to the environment from a variety of sources, including
information about wastes transported to treatment and disposal sites.
The PRTR can be an important tool in the total environment policy of a
Government, providing information otherwise difficult to obtain,
encouraging business to reduce pollution levels and engendering broad
public support for government environmental policies.
6. Other policy instruments
25. Economic instruments that are reported under chapters 4 and 33 are
also being increasingly applied as integrative policy tools by
national decision makers in different countries. Efforts to create
the proper conditions to enable business and individuals to integrate
environment into their decision-making processes have started to move
Governments away from the traditional command-and-control approaches
towards the adoption of economic instruments and other strategies that
combine market-based instruments and direct regulation in
"partnerships" with the private sector.
26. These instruments include environmental taxes and charges (as
adopted within many OECD countries), environmental subsidies and green
funds. There is increased understanding of the usefulness of tradable
permits applied, for instance, in water resource management in Chile
and in air emission control in the United States of America.
Environmental performance bonds are also gaining attention in all
regions by both industrialized and developing countries.
27. Voluntary agreements, reported under chapter 4, have been
negotiated between industry and Government in several developed
countries to complement, but not replace, environmental regulations.
These agreements involve performance and timetable commitments by
industry to achieve environmental protection and pollution prevention
goals.
28. Joint implementation has the potential to enhance the
cost-effectiveness of measures taken to combat transboundary
pollution. Without distracting from the obligation to comply with the
standards in the "donor" country, they provide the recipient country
with much needed environmentally sound investments in infrastructure
and transfer of environmentally sound technology (see report of the
Secretary-General on chapter 34 of Agenda 21 (E/CN.17/1997/2/Add.24)).
Under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change, 4/ a pilot project is being carried out on activities
implemented jointly (see report of the Secretary-General on chapter 9
of Agenda 21 (E/CN.17/1997/2/Add.8)).
C. Integrated environmental and economic accounting
29. In the absence of an international consensus on how to incorporate
environmental assets and the cost and benefits of their use into the
internationally adopted System of National Accounts (SNA), the United
Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) developed a System for Integrated
Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) as a satellite system of
the 1993 SNA. 5/
30. Considerable efforts have been made at the international level in
furthering the integration of economic and environmental accounting
and in developing methodologies in this area. The current work is
concentrated in three main areas: (a) creation of satellite accounts
of the system of national accounts (SNA); (b) creation of specific
national resource or environmental accounts; and (c) creation of
environmental accounts at the microlevel.
31. Discussion at the macroeconomic level has focused on how the SNA
can be adjusted to account for environmental values. This includes
the calculation of a "green gross domestic product (GDP)". The
adoption of an international consensus for a framework and reference
for the compiling of "green national accounts" is an overall emerging
priority, with the purpose of facilitating the implementation of the
concept in practical terms and initiating regular publication. Only a
few countries have attempted such an exercise, and the experiences of
these countries are varied indeed, reflecting different objectives as
well as different methodological approaches.
32. The United Nations Statistics Division has been very active in the
development of satellite accounts, and proposed a system for
integrated environment and economic accounting (SEEA), which was
published in 1993. 6/ Several industrialized and developing countries
are presently experimenting with the implementation of satellite
accounts through the general application of the SEEA framework to a
specific national context (see box 6). However, the United Nations
Statistics Division handbook has not yet been fully tested. Other
initiatives include a manual to be prepared by the Statistical Office
of the European Communities (Eurostat) at the request of policy makers
in Europe, and preliminary drafts are under preparation by the
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
33. Taking into account the level of methodologies and their complex
nature, the formulation of a clear, practical set of guidelines or
manual for the application of the SEEA is considered essential and is
being called for by a growing number of countries. An operational
manual is being prepared and its publication by the United Nations
Statistics Division in cooperation with the Nairobi Group is
anticipated for 1997. (The Nairobi Group includes UNEP, the World
Bank, Eurostat, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements
(Habitat), the New Economics Foundation, the World Wildlife Foundation
and individual experts.) In furtherance of this, considerable efforts
are still needed to assist countries in developing environmental
accounts with linkages to national accounting systems.
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Box 6. Colombia and the Philippines
Colombia: In 1992, the Inter-institutional Committee for
Environmental Accounts (CICA) was established with the responsibility
of defining and validating the methodology and integrating it in the
national accounting system. With the assistance of the United Nations
Statistics Division, the pilot project of an Integrated Economic and
Environmental Accounting System for Colombia (COLSCEA) was initiated,
and the system of national accounts has been executed since 1995 by
the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), as part
of its consolidation strategy.
The Philippines: In 1994, the National Statistical Coordination
Board (NSCB), the agency mandated to compile the national accounts,
started a pilot project on the United Nations SEEA. So far, only the
compilation of the asset account for three resources (fisheries,
forest and minerals) has been carried out, but preliminary conclusions
suggest that considerable processed and unprocessed administrative
data can be transformed into useful data for environmental accounting.
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34. As environmental data related to individual economic sectors can
yield valuable insights for resource managers in the concerned
sectors, interest in the development and use of national resource
accounts as a policy tool is growing in strength. It is building on
sections of the satellite accounts and the underlying objective is to
integrate parameters that reflect the depletion of natural capital
into economic decisions.
35. At the microeconomic level, international as well as national
accounting standard-setting bodies are making progress in looking at
contingent liability and disclosure requirements for environmental
impacts in annual business reports. A growing number of firms now
refer to environmental practices in their annual financial statements
and implement initiatives that may move business closer to cleaner
production and eco-efficiency goals.
IV. UNFULFILLED EXPECTATIONS
A. Sustainable development strategies
36. Agenda 21 recommends (para. 8.7) that national sustainable
development strategies should "build upon and harmonize the various
sectoral ... plans that are operating in the country", and that the
experience gained through existing planning exercises, national
conservation strategies and environmental action plans should be,
"fully used and incorporated into a country-driven sustainable
development strategy", based on the "widest possible participation".
While integration, participation and unification of existing plans are
key themes for sustainable development strategies, it has been
difficult to realize this approach in practice. Frequently,
governmental ministries and decision makers have continued to operate
in separate and distinct spheres with conventional lines of reporting
and modes of consultation without public participation. Other
obstacles to the fuller use of sustainable development strategies,
include the following states of affairs:
(a) Governments, particularly those of developing countries, are
overloaded with requests for various types of strategies, plans and
schemes to satisfy the requirements of international banks, lending
agencies and international organizations, and do not have sufficient
resources to cope with all these requests. International
organizations and the banks have not always been clear about which
plans and strategies should have priority and there is no consensus on
priority's being given to sustainable development strategies;
(b) Not all agencies, even within the United Nations system, have
the same understanding of or commitment to the idea of sustainable
development. Some have adopted programmes of environmentally
sustainable development, and others have called for sustainable human
development while still others have talked of conservation or other
types of environmental plans. These are all affirmed as being
equivalent, but lead to confusion regarding what is actually meant by
"sustainable development", in the final analysis;
(c) Conflicting claims regarding priorities have emerged from
different international conferences, so countries are not always clear
about which issues should be given precedence in national programmes
and action plans;
(d) International agreements are often being reached faster than
countries can effectively respond to the requirements agreed to;
(e) Governments, particularly those of developing countries,
often lack the financial and staff resources to implement the
different international conferences, conventions, agreements and plans
that they have endorsed or signed.
37. A top-down approach resulting from external requirements or the
need to achieve loan replenishment conditions has generally resulted
in impressive environmental action plans, but often at the expense of
public participation and national ownership. It is only through the
commitment and participation of non-governmental organizations, major
groups, the public and ministry officials that implementation and
follow-up can be assured. Non-governmental organizations, in
particular, raise public awareness of issues and help to mobilize
public support to keep governmental action on course. National
sustainable development strategies are more useful for the process
they involve than for the outputs they seek to produce.
B. Integrated environmental and economic accounting at the
national level
38. There has been relatively slow progress in developing a system for
environmental and economic accounting (SEEA) at the national level,
although current efforts in a number of countries indicate that the
SEEA may gain increasing attention in the near future. The SEEA seeks
to integrate environmental issues into conventional national accounts.
Conventional national accounts have provided indicators for assessment
of economic performance and trends for many years, but the emphasis on
integrating environmental information into this process is relatively
new, and remains somewhat controversial. Among other issues,
disagreement centres around which is preferable, monetary economic
accounting through economic valuation of environmental cost or
benefits, or physical environmental accounting.
39. Progress has been made in the implementation of national resource
accounts within OECD countries, including water accounts in Spain,
which combine information on water quality and quantity with
information about expenditures on water pollution abatement and
mobilization of resources. Water accounts in France, forest accounts
in Japan, energy accounts in Norway, and crude oil and natural
resource accounts in Canada, Indonesia and China are all being kept.
Although work is under way in this area, progress remains limited,
owing to countries' lack of knowledge of their potential resources or
vulnerability and the problems connected with identifying the direct
links between specific economic activities and particular
environmental resources.
V. EMERGING PRIORITIES
A. National strategies
40. There is a need to further clarify the definition, purposes and
modalities for national sustainable development strategies and to
bring some consistency of practice to the different requirements that
countries are to satisfy with respect to environmental action plans,
national development plans and country strategy papers. There is also
a need to clarify how the outcomes of different international
conferences and their resulting calls for action can be integrated
into national planning and overall action for sustainable development.
Strategies, and especially sustainable development strategies, have to
be seen as ongoing cyclic processes of action and learning from
experience through a participatory approach, feeding into improved
policies and programmes. The emphasis needs to be put on the
participatory and learning aspects of the process more than on the
document that is the product of the process.
41. There are donor-funded efforts in capacity-building to support the
preparation of sustainable development strategies, such as UNDP's
Capacity 21 programme and others supported by the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and OECD, among others. Many developing countries
need continued capacity-building support to meet the requirements for
the many types of plans and strategies called for, including those
related to various international conventions and agreements.
B. Strategic environmental assessment
42. The limited practical experience with strategic environmental
assessment (SEA) should be further expanded and applied since SEA
could serve as a useful policy tool for many countries. SEA, in
particular, helps to introduce sustainability principles and
responsibilities into economic decision-making by drawing attention to
existing environmental benefits and costs. It also provides a
mechanism for public participation in discussions relevant to
sustainability at a strategic level.
Notes
1/ Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, vol. I, Resolutions Adopted by the Conference (United
Nations publication, Sales No. E.93.I.8 and corrigendum),
resolution 1, annex II.
2/ Environmental Planning Group/International Institute for
Environment and Development (IIED), A Directory of Impact Assessment
Guidelines (London, June 1995).
3/ United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.II.A.16.
4/ A/AC.237/18 (Part II)/Add.1 and Corr.1, annex I.
5/ United Nations publication, Sales No. E.94.XVII.4.
6/ See Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting:
Handbook of National Accounting, Studies in Methods, No. 61 (United
Nations publication, Sales No. E.93.XVII.12).
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Date last posted: 10 December 1999 17:25:35
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