Improvement of the coverage, quality, comparability and timeliness of environmental data through:
• Regular revision of the UNSD/UNEP questionnaire;
• Development of methodological manuals for data compilation;
• Providing training and advisory services to countries and regions, and
• Harmonizing international data collection and dissemination efforts through the Intersecretariat Working Group on Environment Statistics (IWG-ENV).
• Finalization of the 2008 data collection cycle;
• Finalization of the International Recommendations for Water Statistics;
• Data collection and compilation guidance for water statistics;
• Continuation of a global survey on the state of the art of national environment statistics, focusing on air pollution, GHG emission and climate change statistics;
• Regular publication of the ENVSTAT Newsletter and maintenance of the Environment Statistics website continues;(http://unstats.un.org/unsd/environment/default.htm)
• Finalization of the revision of the Glossary of Environment Statistics and the publication of the revised Glossary under the aegis of the IWG-ENV;
• Act as Secretariat to the Intersecretariat Working Group on Environment Statistics;
• Preparation for regional training and capacity building projects with a focus on African countries (with UNEP);
• Workshop on environment statistics for the EECCA and Balkan countries (with ECE);
• Workshop on environment statistics for the Caribbean countries (with CARICOM);
• Expert Group Meeting on Environment Statistics.
• Production of international recommendations and data compilation manuals on environment statistics and increased capacity building in countries and regions;
• Firm establishment of the regular collection and dissemination of environment statistics;
• Close collaboration with international and regional organisations to harmonize international data collection and dissemination efforts.
• Work on a programme for climate change statistics
On-going methodological work:
• Revision of the SEEA - contribution to the revision process in particular by addressing the issues on the classification of physical flows and waste, the definition and classification of assets, and issues related to energy, air emission and water accounts;
• Finalization of the International Recommendations on Water Statistics;
• Preparation of the System of Environemntal-Economic Accounting for Energy.
New methodological work:
• Archive of publications on environmetal-economic accounting, including country practices
• SEEA News and Notes
• Implementation of the SEEA-Water in countries
• The UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (UNCEEA) was established by the UN Statistical Commission at its 36th session in March 2005. A revision of the mandate, governance and programme of work will be discussed by the Statistical Commission at its forty-first session.
The programme of work of the Committee encompasses six areas, namely
(b) methodological development for normative statistical standards and other research;
(c) development of integrated databases;
(d) implementation of environmental-economic accounting and environment statistics and statistical capacity building;
(e) promotion of environmental-economic accounting and environment statistics;
(f) formulation of a statistical response on emerging policy issues. An elaboration of the Committee's programme of work with outputs and deliverables is presented in a separate document.
On-going methodological work:
• The UNCEEA will submit to the Statistical Commission at its forty-first session a detailed programme of work;
• The main project of the UNCEEA is steering and managing the revision process of the SEEA;
• The Committee, within its mandate, has an umbrella function in coordinating and providing vision, direction and prioritisation to ensure that existing groups work in complementary fashion;
• The Committee has organized during its meetings discussions on different policy themes including climate change, green economy, resource productivity and efficiency, economics of ecosystem services and water communities;
• To share best-practices, a web-based knowledge base platform has been set-up It features events and activities in the field of environmental-economic accounting and a searchable archive of publications.
The UNCEEA meets once a year; the Bureau meets on a regular basis by teleconference.
More information can be found at the UNCEEA website:
3.2 Regional and small area statistics
• Dissemination of data on cities population through the website http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sconcerns/densurb/urban.aspx and through UN Data.
3.3.1 Living conditions, poverty and cross-cutting social issues
• UNSD continues its work of reviewing methodologies used by countries in poverty mapping, highlighting good practices.
• UNSD convened an expert group meeting in September 2008 on the scope and content of social statistics, with the aim of seeking inputs towards an international action plan to improve social statistics. See http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/meetings/egm/social_stat_2008.htm
• UNSD serves as the secretariat for the Friends of the Chair of the United Nations Statistical Commission on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women. The first report will be submitted to the 40th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission in February 2009.
• UNSD maintains a website of Social Indicators which is updated twice a year:
See also: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/poverty/default.htm .
3.3.2 Gender and special population group
• Following the recommendations of the 2006 Inter-Agency and Expert Group Meeting on Gender Statistics (IAEG-GS), the Division has launched a Global Programme on Gender Statistics to promote advances in gender statistics at the global, regional and national levels through: (1) the strengthening the collaboration among stakeholders, (2) the development and implementation of training activities and (3) the dissemination of selected gender statistics and indicators in key areas of concern. As part of the Programme, the Division, in collaboration with various partners conducted the following activities:
• Inter-regional workshop on the Production of Gender Statistics, held in New Delhi, India, 6-10 August 2007. See: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/meetings/wshops/India%20Aug07/DOCLIST.htm
• Global Forum on Gender Statistics, held in Rome, Italy, 10-12 December 2007. See: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/meetings/wshops/Gender_Statistics_10Dec07_Rome/default.htm
• Second annual meeting of the IAEG-GS, held in Rome, Italy, 13 December 2007. See: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/meetings/wshops/Gender_Statistics_10Dec07_Rome/default.htm
• Establishment of two advisory groups to provide guidance to UNSD on (1) gender statistics training and curricula development and (2) global gender indicators database.
• Development and launch of Gender Info 2007 -a global database of gender statistics and indicators in key areas of concern. See: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/genderinfo/default.htm
• A survey of gender statistics activities and training needs was conducted in 2008 among National Statistical Offices and relevant organizations at the regional and global levels. The aim was to obtain information in order to better tailor UNSD's upcoming activities within the Global Programme on Gender Statistics. The results of the survey are being processed and analyzed, and a report completed in 2009.
• UNSD continues to disseminate basic gender statistics and indicators through its website: "Statistics and indicators on Women and Men" which is updated semi-annually.
• The second Global Forum on Gender Statistics is being planned for 26-28 January 2009 in Accra, Ghana.
• The third annual meeting of the IAEG-GS is being planned to take place on 29 January 2009 in Accra, Ghana.
3.3.6 Sustainable development
• UNSD contributes to the methodological development of the CSD indicators of sustainable development and climate change indicators;
• UNSD collaborates with UNEP and other concerned agencies of the UN system, member of the IAEG sub-group on environment indicators, on compiling and reporting sustainable development indicators within the framework of the environment goal and targets of the Millennium Declaration.
3.4 Yearbooks and similar compendia
• Brings together selected economic, social and environmental data produced by UNSD, other UN offices and agencies, international, national and specialized organizations for dissemination in the Statistical Yearbook (print), Monthly Bulletin of Statistics (print and Internet), World Statistics Pocketbook (print) and UNdata.
• UNSD will continue to develop a well-structured web-site to disseminate metadata and demographic and social statistics;
• Implement conclusions and recommendations of the Expert Group Meeting to Review the United Nations Demographic Yearbook system: for details please see http:unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/meetings/egm/DYB_1103/docs/no_L4.pdf. See also: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/default.htm; in particular revise questionnaires to lessen response burden.