The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting 2012 Central Framework is an international statistical standard that provides the statistical framework consisting of a comprehensive set of tables and accounts, which guides the compilation of consistent and comparable statistics and indicators for policymaking, analysis and research.
The Framework for the Development of Environment Statistics (FDES 2013) is a multi-purpose conceptual and statistical framework that is comprehensive and integrative in nature and marks out the scope of environment statistics. It provides an organizing structure to guide the collection and compilation of environment statistics at the national level. It brings together data from the various relevant subject areas and sources. It is broad and holistic in nature, covering the issues and aspects of the environment that are relevant for policy analysis and decision making by applying it to cross-cutting issues such as climate change
UNSD, in collaboration with the Expert Group on Environment Statistics, has developed the Environment Statistics Self-Assessment Tool (ESSAT) in support of the FDES 2013. The purpose of the ESSAT is to assist countries in both developing their environment statistics programmes and collecting their own data on the environment, and to assess the state of environment statistics and the needs for their development at the national level consistent with the scope of the FDES 2013.
The Basic Set of Environment Statistics is a comprehensive, but not exhaustive, set of statistics designed to support countries developing national environment statistics programmes by helping them make decisions on priorities for statistical development. It is embedded in the FDES 2013 and consists of 458 individual statistics organized into the structure of the FDES (components, sub-components and topics). The Basic Set is divided into three tiers, based on the level of relevance, availability and methodological development of the statistics.
The objective of the Manual is to produce and disseminate a set of methodology sheets or metadata for the collection or compilation of all environment statistics of the Basic Set of Environment Statistics embedded in the FDES 2013. These methodology sheets offer detailed and in-depth methodological guidance including definitions, classifications, statistical methods for collection and/or compilation, dissemination and main uses of the sets of the respective environment statistics.