Subject: Environment

Article on changing spending patterns of households relating to climate week.

The article is published as part of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Measuring National Well-being programme. The programme aims to produce accepted and trusted measures of the well-being of the nation – how the UK as a whole is doing. This article explores in more detail the aspects of the Natural Environment that are considered important for measuring National Well-being. It includes information on the environmental assets available to us, how they are used and the pressure that places on the natural environment.

The UK Environmental Accounts are satellite accounts to the main UK National Accounts and facilitate environmental-economic analyses, providing statistics on the environmental impact of UK economic activity. They include natural asset accounts (e.g. oil and gas reserves, forestry, land), physical flow accounts (e.g.greenhouse gas emissions, air pollutants, energy consumption, consumption of raw materials) and monetary accounts (e.g. environmental taxes, environmental protection expenditure).

The United Nations World Environment Day is on the 5 June 2012. The theme this year is the Green Economy: Does it include you? This summary of UK Environmental Accounts Blue Book 2011 Update data has been released by the Office for National Statistics for this event to show how the UK Environmental Accounts provide data on how the economy impacts on the Environment. The summary includes statistics on emissions per unit of energy consumed, how this has changed over the last two decades and explains how this is the result of switching to cleaner fuels. It also provides information on the use of renewable sources for energy consumption in the UK and the amount of energy supplied per person compared to other countries. This summary is produced as part of the Measuring National Well-being programme.

This article presents experimental estimates of environmental protection expenditure by the UK public sector in the years 1996 to 2009. The article firstly discusses the concept of environmental protection expenditure and its relevance. Next, the history of environmental protection expenditure accounts in the UK Environmental Accounts, for both the public and private sector, is discussed. This includes reference to the requirements to improve the accounts set out by the UK Statistics Authority in their assessment of the UK Environmental Accounts against the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The remainder of the article outlines work to date to deliver on these requirements, including early estimates for public sector expenditure, together with an assessment of further developments needed to deliver economy-wide environmental protection expenditure accounts in line with emerging international standards.

The UK Environmental Accounts are satellite accounts to the main UK National Accounts and facilitate environmental-economic analyses, providing statistics on the environmental impact of UK economic activity. They include natural asset accounts (for example, oil and gas reserves, forestry, land), physical flow accounts (for example, greenhouse gas emissions, air pollutants, energy consumption, consumption of raw materials) and monetary accounts (for example, environmental taxes, environmental protection expenditure).