Economy-wide material flow accounts

Economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) is a framework to compile statistics linking flows of materials from natural resources to a national economy. EW-MFA is descriptive statistic, in physical units such as tonnes per year.

Biomass in general comprises organic non-fossil material of biological origin. Crops, crop residues, fodder crops, grazed biomass, wood, wild fish catch, aquatic plants/animals, hunting and gathering.

Fossil energy material/carriers coal, Lignite, hard coal, oil shale and tar sands, peat, crude oil, natural gas.

Metal ores are mineral aggregates containing metals. Ferrous metal: Iron, Non-ferrous metal: Copper, nickel, lead, zinc, tin, gold, silver, platinum, bauxite, aluminium, uranium and thorium.

Non-metallic minerals Marble, granite, sandstone, porphyry, basalt, other ornamental or building stone (excluding slate), chalk and dolomite, Slate, chemical and fertilizer minerals, salt, limestone and gypsum, clays and kaolin, sand and gravel.

Raw products raw materials like products produced by primary industries such as agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining.

Semi-manufactured products which are further processed raw products but do not yet constitute finished products; they obviously need to be further processed.

Finished products which are finalized i.e., are not processed or transformed anymore.

Name: Economy-wide material flow accounts
Topic: Nature and the environment

Division for Energy, Environmental and Transport Statistics

Whole Country

Yearly

Yearly reporting to Eurostat in accordance with statistics regulation 691/2011 about European environmental economic accounts.

Data from all internal and external actors will be aggregated and stored as files in the operating system UNIX. All files are stored as SAS-language files.

The Statistics Regulation 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts, includes a module called Economy -Wide Material Flow Accounts (EW- MFA).

The general purpose of EW-MFA is to describe the interaction of the domestic economy with the natural environment and the rest of the world economy (ROW) in terms of flow of materials (excluding water and air). The economy is demarcated by the conventions of the national accounting system (resident units).

Only flows crossing the system boundary (between the environment and the economy) on the input-side or on the output-side are counted. Material flows within the economy are not represented in EW-MFA.

For populating the EW-MFA framework with data various statistical sources have to be used. Those original sources have to be reformatted and amended in order to comply with the concepts of the EW-MFA accounting system.

The compilation of data for reporting consist of biomass, metal ores and concentrates, non-metallic minerals, fossil energy carriers, or waste imported for final treatment and disposal. Products which cannot be clearly identified as belonging to one of the four material categories should be included under other products.

The statistics are used for international reporting (EU).
Figures are also used by the European environment agency to publish yearly
material resource efficiency in Europe. Eurostat, Norwegian Environment
Agency, Research Institutions and other organizations and persons who
works with environmental economics and natural resources and media are the
main users of statistics.

The statistics are based on annual reporting of figures from primary
statistics, energy statistics, foreign trade in the national accounts,
waste statistics (possibly from raw material for these statistics) as well
as mineral resource statistics from Norwegian Directorate of Mining (DMF).
The numbers are retrieved, both manual and automated, on an agreed format from source statistics.

Norway: Statistics Act §10

Statistics regulation 691/2011about European environmental economic accounts.

The statistics include the data for extraction of natural resources (biomass, minerals and fossil fuels) as well as import and export of such resources. In addition, import and export of products (distribution based on the type of material as the main constituent) and waste for final disposal.

The compilation of figures for reporting involves annual reporting of figures from primary statistics, energy statistics, foreign trade in the national accounts, waste statistics (from raw material for these statistics) as well as mineral resource statistics from Directorate for Mineral Management (Dirmin) . Following are links to source data:

Cereals, pulses and Oil seeds:

http://www.ssb.no/en/jord-skog-jakt-og-fiskeri/statistikker/korn/aar/2012-11-27?fane=om#content

Roots and tubers:

http://www.ssb.no/en/jord-skog-jakt-og-fiskeri/statistikker/jordbruksavling/aar/2013-02-04?fane=om#content

Vegetables fruit and berries:

http://www.ssb.no/en/jord-skog-jakt-og-fiskeri/statistikker/hagebruk/aar/2012-12-21?fane=om#content

Forage plants including meadow for mowing:

http://www.ssb.no/en/jord-skog-jakt-og-fiskeri/statistikker/jordbruksavling/aar/2013-02-04?fane=om#content

Source: Budget Committee for Agriculture (BFJ), Total estimates for 
agriculture; Feed accounts

Waste statistics:

http://www.ssb.no/en/natur-og-miljo/statistikker/avfregno

Foreign trade:

http://www.ssb.no/en/utenriksokonomi/statistikker/muh

Mineral Resources:

https://www.dirmin.no/om-naeringen/mineralstatistikk

EW-MFA module requires annual mandatory reporting to Eurostat on extraction of natural resources (biomass, minerals and fossil fuels) as well as import and export of such resources. In addition, import and export of products (roughly split by type of material as the main constituent) and waste for final disposal. Data which form the basis for reporting collected from sources in Statistics Norway and with external actors.

The compilation of data for reporting involves annual figures from primary statistics, energy statistics, foreign trade in the national accounts, waste statistics (possibly from raw material for these statistics) as well as mineral resource statistics from Directorate for Mineral Management (Dirmin). The numbers retrieved both manual and automated, on an agreed format source statistics.

Data compilation, accounting rules and classification of EW-MFA follows European standard systems mentioned in EW-MFA compilation guide (compilation guide 2013) and System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Central framework (SEEA 2012).

This statistics includes only aggregated figures, and follow SSB's rules for confidentiality.

The economy wide-material flow accounts balance sheet includes figures since 1990 except data for all type of metallic and non-metallic minerals. Figures for metallic ores and non-metallic minerals are available from 2006. In addition statistics follows European standard system, which makes figures comparable also at European level.

This depends on the quality of the source statistics. Although the registers involved are of fairly high quality, some coverage errors could occurs due to late updating and classification errors. Use of estimates instead of actual figures represents another source of uncertainty. Errors may also occur during data transfer and revision. There can be uncertainty about where the end consumption takes place.