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Revista Portuguesa de Estudos Regionais E-ISSN: 1645-586X [email protected] Associação Portuguesa para o Desenvolvimento Regional Portugal Solís, Alberto Franco; Márquez Paniagua, Miguel Ángel; De Miguel Vélez, Francisco Javier Integrating a Regional Social Accounting Matrix With Environmental Accounts (Samea). An Illustration For a Spanish Region Revista Portuguesa de Estudos Regionais, núm. 42, 2016, pp. 7-19 Associação Portuguesa para o Desenvolvimento Regional Angra do Heroísmo, Portugal Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=514354167002 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative Integrating a Regional Social Accounting Matrix With En- vironmental Accounts (Samea). An Illustration For a Spanish Region1 2 Integração de uma Matriz de Contablidade Social Regional (Samea). Uma Ilustração Para uma Região de Espanha Alberto Franco Solís [email protected] Department of Economics, University of Extremadura, Plasencia (Spain) Miguel Ángel Márquez Paniagua Department of Economics, University of Extremadura, Badajoz (Spain) Francisco Javier De Miguel Vélez Department of Economics, University of Extremadura, Badajoz (Spain) Abstract /Resumo The increasing awareness of the deteriora- A crescente sensibilização para a deteriora- tion of the environment during the past three ção do meio ambiente, durante as últimas três decades has given rise to the enhanced devel- décadas, determinou um reforçado interesse em opment of environmental accounts by govern- contas ambientais por parte dos governos e ments and international agencies. However, as agências internacionais. No entanto, como estas they are generally compiled at a national level, contas são geralmente compiladas a nível they may not be sufficient to yield accurate nacional, podem não ser suficientes para dar information for environmental decision-making informações precisas para os processos de processes at the regional level. Thi s paper pro- tomada de decisão ambientais a nível regional. vides a description of a method followed in Este artigo fornece uma descrição de um méto- elaborating the Greenhouse Gases (GHG) and do seguido na elaboração de contas de emissão water accounts for a regional economy under de gases de efeito estufa e da água para uma conditions of limited information. This meth- economia regional, em condições de informa- odology provides a solution to the recurring ção limitada. Esta metodologia fornece uma compilation divergences between these envi- solução para as divergências de compilação ronmental and the economic accounts generally recorrentes entre as contas do ambiente e eco- incorporated in the Social Accounting Matrix nómicas, geralmente incorporadas na Matriz de including Environmental Accounts (SAMEA) Contabilidade Social com Extensão Ambiental structure. As an illustration, the SAMEA for (SAMEA). Como ilustração, uma SAMEA para air emissions and water resources is applied for as emissões atmosféricas e recursos hídricos é the case of a NUTS 2 Spanish region, Extrema- aplicada para o caso de uma região espanhola dura, for the year 2005. The proposed method- NUTS 2, a Extremadura, para o ano de 2005. A ology is sufficiently general to create SAMEAs metodologia proposta é suficientemente geral by replicating the water and the atmospheric para criar outras SAMEAs, replicando as contas emissions accounts in other regions. da água e das emissões atmosféricas em outras regiões. 1 A previous version of this paper was the winner of the 2014 Bartolomeu Prize, that awards the best paper of a young scientist (less than 33 years old) presented in the annual congress of APDR (the Portuguese Association for Regional Development). 2 We would like to thank Geoffrey Hewings, Director of the Regional Economic Applications Laboratory (REAL) at the University of Illi- nois, and one anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments. Francisco Javier De Miguel Vélez would also like to express his gratitude for the funding received under the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport project ECO2013-41917-p. Revista Portuguesa de Estudos Regionais, nº 42 Keywords: environmental accounts, social ac- Palavras-chave: contas ambientais, matriz de counting matrix, atmospheric emissions, water contabilidade social, emissões atmosféricas, resources, input-output table. recursos hídricos, quadro de input-output JEL Codes: C82 Q25 Q53 Q56 R15 Códigos JEL: C82 Q25 Q53 Q56 R15 1. INTRODUCTION accounts with environmental data in physical units. Thereby, it is possible to obtain a hybrid Continuous economic growth combined accounting framework covering the multi- with an increasing population, especially in faceted attributes of sustainability which are developing countries, has led to an inappropri- environment, society and economy. ate use of environmental resources for years. However, the construction of this kind of Nevertheless, after years of stagnation, the tool is not a minor issue, since building a awareness of the deterioration of the environ- SAMEA requires collecting a large volume of ment has become an increasing preoccupation data that is often not fully available. In partic- of national governments and international ular, elaborating a SAMEA for a regional agencies during the past three decades.3 Along economy faces problems that are not found at with the growing environmental concerns, the national level. The extensive development environmental accounting has received a great of environmental data at the scale of the na- deal of attention in its relationship with the tional level and the lack of affordable regional economy. The information made available by information of this nature become relevant integrated environmental and economic ac- constraints for the construction of these tools at counts (United Nations, 1993) provides de- a regional level. Hence, to keep track of envi- scriptive statistics that help policy makers ronmental interventions in a regional economy, monitor interactions between the environment users of SAMEA often employ these tools at a and the economy. In addition, work in this national level, which could influence accuracy area is of considerable interest for strategic of regional results because of the differences planning and policy analysis to identify the among the national and regional environmental most appropriate sustainable tools. For these burdens. Consequently, as have been pointed reasons, governments around the world have by some studies (see Su and Ang, 2010 and included environmental accounts in their na- Bouwmeester and Oosterhaven, 2013), the tional income accounting systems to enhance dependency on spatial aggregation for obtain- decision-making processes. ing results may result in ineffective environ- The creation of such databases has facilitat- mental policies or divert the focus from the ed their links to different economic record- most urgent regional environmental problems. keeping structures, such as Input-Output (IO) On the other hand, a recurring problem tables and Social Accounting Matrices when constructing regional SAMEAs is that (SAMs), as exemplified by the National Ac- economic and environmental accounts are of- counting Matrix including Environmental Ac- ten not compiled by the same statistical agen- counts (NAMEA).4 Within the framework of cy. Therefore, they often differ with respect to the economy-environment linkages analysis either their classification frameworks, the base presented by the NAMEA, a Social Account- year, their sampling methods or their defini- ing Matrix including Environmental Accounts tions. Specifically, for the construction of the (SAMEA) can be considered as the next rele- GHG accounts, it becomes necessary to reclas- vant approach to integrate traditional monetary sify these emissions based on the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or the Core Inventory Air Emissions (CORINAIR) inven- 3 The 20th Conference of the Parties (COP 20) held in Lima at tories by the National Classification of Eco- the end of 2014 constituted the last major step towards offering a policy response to the key environmental issues. nomic Activities, NACE-93 rev.1. (INE, 1993) 4 The NAMEA, introduced by the De Haan et al. (1994) consists involved in the SAMEA compilation. In these of the framework of National Accounts with the supply and use cases, methodological techniques aiming at of goods and services expressed in monetary units linked with integrated environmental accounts where the input of natural producing these missing data and identifying resources and the output of emissions and pollutants are ex- the economic agent generating the GHG emi- pressed in physical units. 8 Integrating a Regional Social Accounting Matrix With Environmental Accounts (Samea)… ssions and water use would enable regional ra, a southwest NUTS 25 region of Spain, for governments to improve their knowledge base 2005 year (SAMEAEXT-05). for sustainable development policies. Although exemplified for Extremadura, this The difficulties encountered to develop the- methodology can be used as baseline for the se databases have indeed constrained the re- construction of SAMEAs that represent the gional development of such tools. However, GHG emissions and the water use in other sub- the elaboration of these matrixes at the national national economies. SAMEAs created