Page 181 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS195 Albert B.
maybe more interested in detailed data and time series. Furthermore, the
needs of stakeholders at the political and government levels are important,
so that official statistics should offer inputs to address political agendas
both, at the national and international level. At the international level this
concerns for instance the UNAgenda 2030 or the Paris Climate Agreement.
Against the background of the growing world population, information on
the environment with regard to tipping-points would seem particularly
useful as well.
- Accuracy and Reliability
Accuracy may be translated as a good portray of the reality and reliability
as giving very similar results when repeatedly compiled. If comprehensive
data sources are available for compiling physical data on natural resources
and returns to nature there seems no major obstacle that these are
produced and disseminated by statistical offices. The situation for value
data seems a bit different. On one hand different valuation methods are
proposed, for which it is unclear if they produce reliable results. On the
other hand in case of some methods their suitability assessments diverge.
Insofar it seems that further research is needed. And for statistical offices
the advice could be to follow a more cautious approach concerning value
data. Possibly they could be published not as official statistics but as
socalled experimental data, compiled in close connection and with the
support of specialized researchers.
- Timeliness and Punctuality
Timeliness concerns the interval between the end of a reporting period and
the publication date, which should be as short as possible; punctuality
concerns the respect of pre-announced publication dates. In digital
societies timeliness is very important, because news need to be as topical
as possible to attract attention and to serve as a basis for political debates
and measures. A much appreciated but challenging timeliness goal consists
in publishing environmental data one year after the end of reporting
period. This implies to look at the statistical production processes and
possibly streamline them for instance by employing satellite images instead
of surveys or using company information on non-financial reporting like
the standards on sustainability accounting (SASB-standards, 2018).
- Coherence and Comparability
Comparability of the data refers to the common methodological standards
used over a reasonable period of time and across countries; coherence
means that arithmetic and accounting identities are respected. Due to the
fact that at the moment two separate international methodologies, namely
the SEEA-2012-CF and the SEEA-2012-EEA, are used to produce
environmental accounts, there is a risk of both double-counting and
undercoverage. Therefore, it would seem a useful idea to develop one

168 | I S I W S C 2 0 1 9