System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Energy (SEEA-Energy)

SEEA-Energy is a complementary, coordinated document developed in parallel with IRES, building on IRES’s data items, product classification and flow definitions [IRES, Ch. I, para. 1.11, PDF p. 16, 2018]. At the time IRES was adopted, SEEA-Energy was still forthcoming, listed alongside ISIC/CPC/HS harmonization and the UN Framework Classification as one of the integrated approaches the 2011 IRES revision aimed to support [IRES, Ch. I, para. 1.23(a)–(f), PDF pp. 18–19, 2018]. Compilers of SEEA-Energy are named among the user groups energy statistics serve, since energy statistics form the basis for SEEA-Energy accounts integrating them with economic statistics [IRES, Ch. I, para. 1.28, PDF p. 20, 2018].

Role in Chapter VI

Chapter VI’s section on mineral and energy resource data items (paras 6.88–6.93) is explicitly “based on the work that has been carried out in the preparation of SEEA-Energy” [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.88, PDF p. 98, 2018]. Two of the section’s central tables are drawn directly from SEEA-Energy’s own tables:

• Table 6.1 (mineral and energy resources relevant for energy — oil, natural gas, coal and peat, uranium and other nuclear fuels), sourced from SEEA-Energy, table 2.5 [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.89, Table 6.1, PDF p. 98, 2018].
• Table 6.2 (the three-class commercial-recoverability categorization — Class A/B/C), which groups the detailed categories of the United Nations Framework Classification for Fossil Energy and Mineral Reserves and Resources (UNFC 2009) into three aggregated classes, sourced from SEEA-Energy, table 5.1 [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.90, Table 6.2, PDF p. 98, 2018].

This resource-stock data is also noted as feeding asset accounts in both the SNA and SEEA-Energy [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.88, PDF p. 98, 2018]. Full detail on Mineral and Energy Resources.

Accounting framework and the three account types (Chapter XI)

SEEA-Energy provides a conceptual framework for organizing energy-related information in a manner coherent with, and consistent with, the concepts, definitions and classifications of the SNA. It supports analyses of the role of energy within the economy and of the relationship between energy-related activities and the environment [IRES, Ch. XI, para. 11.5, PDF p. 148, 2018].

SEEA-Energy consists of three main types of accounts:

(a) Physical flow accounts, in which flows of energy are recorded in energy units. They record the flow of energy from natural inputs from the environment to the economy, within the economy (as energy products), and from the economy to the environment (as losses and returns of energy to the environment). The various energy flows are recorded in the physical supply and use table (PSUT).

(b) Monetary flow accounts for energy-related transactions, which record the monetary transactions related to physical flows of energy in a supply and use table framework. These accounts focus on transactions within the economy and therefore do not cover flows between the environment and the economy.

(c) Asset accounts, in physical and monetary terms, which describe stocks at the beginning and end of the accounting year and the changes therein. Asset accounts are compiled for mineral and energy resources and provide information on the resource’s availability in the environment, its extraction pattern and its depletion rate.

[IRES, Ch. XI, para. 11.5, PDF p. 148, 2018]

The asset accounts described here are the same asset-account role noted above for Chapter VI’s mineral and energy resource data items (Tables 6.1 and 6.2) [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.88, PDF p. 98, 2018].

SEEA-Energy is the accounts framework that basic energy statistics and energy balances feed: countries can use energy balance data as a source for compiling the physical supply and use tables, subject to a set of adjustments for the conceptual and presentational differences between balances and accounts — see Energy Accounts for the full treatment of those differences and adjustments [IRES, Ch. XI, para. 11.21, PDF p. 150, 2018].

Related

• IRES Chapter VI — Statistical Units and Data Items — the Chapter VI digest this page supports
• IRES Chapter I — Introduction — the Chapter I digest recording SEEA-Energy’s earlier passing mentions
• Mineral and Energy Resources — Tables 6.1 and 6.2, drawn directly from SEEA-Energy’s own tables
• United Nations Framework Classification for Fossil Energy and Mineral Reserves and Resources — the classification scheme SEEA-Energy groups into Table 6.2’s three classes
• System of National Accounts — the sibling standard whose asset accounts this resource data also feeds
• IRES Chapter XI — Uses of Basic Energy Statistics and Balances — the Chapter XI digest covering SEEA-Energy’s three account types and its role as the accounts framework energy balances feed
• Energy Accounts — the balances-vs-accounts distinction and the adjustments needed to compile SEEA-Energy’s physical supply and use tables from balance data
• Energy Balance — the source framework SEEA-Energy accounts are compiled from, subject to adjustment