Definition: National Accounting Matrix including Environmental...

Category: Environment

The National Accounting Matrix including Environmental Accounts (NAMEA) is a conceptual tool that links conventional national accounts and environmental accounts. This means that NAMEA jointly presents environmental and economic data broken down by industry and household categories.

NAMEA helps to identify the sources of air pollution. Moreover, the satellite account provides the opportunity to benchmark between countries and industries

NAMEA extends national accounts with a system of environmental accounts and indicators for different economic sectors and can be regarded as a satellite account. This system allows an analysis of the performance of an industry where the emissions are normalised by the size of the economy. As far as economic data are concerned traditional economic indicators are used with the addition of related environmental economic data such as environmental taxes and environmental protection expenditure. Environmentally related data has so far been focused on a variety of environmental pressures such as greenhouse gas emissions, emissions of acidifying substances, water pollution and waste generation.

The major advantage of the NAMEA is the possibility to interlink data on air emissions with macroeconomic or even social data. That means a coherent set of environmental, social and economic indicators can be derived with a high degree of international comparability of the results and all indicators are closely linked to one another. This is a key basis for integrated economic and environmental analysis and modelling, including cost-effectiveness analyses, scenario modelling and economic and environmental forecasts. This integrated framework allows sectoral policies and indicators to be part in a comprehensive economic, social, and environmental context.

From compilation guide (available in English only)

NAMEA stands for National Accounting Matrix including Environmental Accounts. It is a framework in which different types of statistical data are consistently organised bringing together economic and environmental information that come from different parts of the statistical system. The core of the framework is a set of tables containing economic data and forming a national accounting matrix (NAM) as compiled in national accounts. The environmental accounts (EA) consist of tables containing data that are frequently physical units (mass, volume or energy units).

In NAMEA, the NAM could be extended with almost all kind of environment related data, expressed either in physical (as it is mostly the case) or in monetary units. In the pilot applications reported so far to Eurostat (2003), the type of physical environmental data taken into account in the NAMEA framework include emissions to air, emissions of waste, wastewater and water use. Energy balances, showing supply and use of energy, have also been included, as well as stock data on subsoil assets and forest. Concerning water, both physical and monetary data are collected. A few trials were also made for including other monetary data such as environmental taxes and expenditure can also be shown separately within the NAM. 

However, the most far advanced area in the compilation of environmental accounts for NAMEA concerns atmospheric polluting emissions. 

(Source: "NAMEA for Air Emissions - Compilation Guide (Draft version), Eurostat, 2003) http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/coded_files/KS-NQ-06-002-EN.pdf More information on NAMEA