EIPOT Final Project Report - Stockholm Environment Institute

ERA-NET SKEP Project EIPOT (www.eipot.eu)
“Development of a methodology for the assessment of global environmental impacts of traded goods and services”
The JRC IES will develop by 2010, life cycle-based environmental indicators for the three data centres
through the following tasks:
• provision of the three sets of decoupling indicators set out in the Thematic Strategy on Natural
Resources, namely the overall EU eco-efficiency indicator, resource productivity and resourcespecific
impact indicators;
• provision of product environmental impact indicators, covering the main product groups consumed
or used in the EU;
• provision of waste environmental indicators, covering the main waste types generated and treated
in the EU.
These indicators will be based on a framework built on the requirements of the International Life Cycle
Data System (ILCD), in particular the life cycle inventory datasets and impact assessment methods
and factors. Sub-indicators will provide information on carbon and ecological footprints.
Institutions must be active in setting up national systems to ensure that future studies can be
conducted and data collected. It is essential that international institutions agree on one main
methodology and common standards of data compilation, to ensure data consistency and enable
automating of data collection. We recommend using the SEEA and SNA as a starting point for the
EIPOT methodology.
The national accounts departments in most countries have not prioritized the symmetric IO data. It is
important that new uses/users of the data can show their interest to the departments at national
agencies and at Eurostat. Both have a lot of other pressing needs for their scarce resources.
Countries must produce and report IO tables and NAMEA data regularly. At present, data collection in
the EU+EFTA 45 area is based on a gentlemen’s agreement. Plans are being finalised for statistical
regulation which will make it obligatory to report. Such regulation, together with existing manuals, will
improve the data situation for many countries. Nevertheless, data will need to be checked and some
countries will need more time than others to report. Resources and institutional structure are needed
to ensure consistency of data.
Data provision from countries outside Europe also needs attention. Continued coordination between
European institutions and the UN, OECD, WTO and others will be important to ensure consistency of
data compilation. Capacity building in developing countries to construct the necessary data will be
needed.
The alternative is to develop IO tables outside official departments. This could be done in different
ways, for example by means of the ten environmental data centres outlined here. Agreement on the
structure of data collection and processing would enable synchronisation between these centres.
A final point concerns terminology. The structural framework for analysing trade flows is based around
the accounting framework. Some call it environmentally extended input-output analyses (EE-IOA) or
multi-regional input-output analyses (MRIOA), others call it system of environmental and economic
accounts (SEEA) or NAMEA. We recommend aligning the terminology, as it is likely to be confusing to
people outside of the modelling world.
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The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is an intergovernmental organisation set up for the promotion
of free trade and economic integration to the benefit of its four Member States: Iceland, Liechtenstein,
Norway and Switzerland.
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