The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released a paper outlining its approach to developing the country’s first national set of ecosystem accounts, ahead of a full rollout in early 2025.
Dubbed National Ecosystem Accounts, and developed in partnership with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water, the framework will cover the entire Australian territory, encompassing terrestrial, freshwater, and marine realms.
“Development of the National Ecosystem Accounts is a significant step in understanding the health and wealth of our nation’s natural capital,” said the paper.
“Valuing the economic contribution of ecosystems allows for a deeper understanding of how nature supports economies and societies, which can lead to more informed and sustainable decision-making.”
The Australian framework will build on the UN’s System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) for ecosystems, launched in 2022 in response to steep declines in natural capital since the turn of the millennium while global gross domestic product (GDP) soared.
It will encompass five main components – stocks of ecosystem assets, their condition, the flows of goods and services from the assets, the value of the benefits from such goods and services, and the value of ecosystem assets.
“Over time, the programme will provide a time series of information on environmental change and how this impacts our economy,” said the paper.
“Extensions to ecosystem accounts will also be developed exploring thematic areas such as biodiversity and climate change, providing targeted insights for specific policy areas.”
FOCUS ON ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
The framework will include a range of condition metrics as well as selected ecosystem service accounts, initially covering agricultural biomass, water, coastal protection, wild fish, and carbon sequestration and retention.
“While there is an extensive list of ecosystem services that are provided by the environment, it is unrealistic to produce accounts that cover all these services,” said the paper.
“The intention is to expand this list of ecosystem services in response to future needs.”
Governments worldwide are increasingly taking steps to incorporate the value of ecosystem services into policy planning frameworks, as they implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and strive to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
China has recently become the first country to adopt the gross ecosystem product (GEP) in economic planning, while the Netherlands and Iceland have decided to reflect the value of ecosystem services in national accounts.
Meanwhile, the US government released guidelines in February to assist public agencies in assessing how their projects, policies, and regulations impact ecosystem services.
The World Economic Forum calculated that more than half of the global GDP, equivalent to $44 trillion, relies to some extent on nature.
Yet, according to a separate study led by a University of Hamburg academic and published earlier this year in Science, governments have so far fallen short of assessing the actual monetary value of ecosystem services by up to 180%.
By Sergio Colombo – sergio@carbon-pulse.com
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