It is really no longer necessary to stress the importance of availing of sound statistical information on the environment. Originally .limited to circles of insiders and experts this message has now fully reached political decision makers and the general public at large. In this procedure macro-economics has - sumed a particular role, e.g. when evaluating related financial implications but also when propagating alarming overall figures on the harm this generation is doing to our environment. Accordingly, the need is o!>vious to further promote the development of international standards and - operation in the field of environment statistics in general and environmental economic accounts in p- ticular. Therefore, the AiJstrian Statistical Society (ASS) together with the Austrian Central Statistical Office (ACSO) with pleasure hosted the IARIW Special Conference on Environmental Economic Accounts, in May 1991. These institutions are similarly pleased that now this publication on the proceedings of this Conference can be presented. They connect this with grateful thanks to all those who contributed to the successful completion of this work, in particular the authors and the editors. The impression seems warranted that the outcome of this coordinated overall endeavour was more than just better mutual understanding, viz. something like an increasing consciousness of the common - nominator tending to expand.

Inhalt

National Accounting for Resource and Environmental Degradation: Alternative Approaches and Concepts.- Calculating a Sustainable National Income: A Practical Solution for a Theoretical Dilemma.- Neither Fish nor Fowl? Can Environmental Accounts Guide Economic Policy, Environmental Policy, Both or Neither? Conclusions from a United States Case Study.- Towards Pluralism in National Accounting Systems.- Natural Resource Accounting: Some Australian Experiences and Observations.- Materials/Energy Flows and Balances as a Component of Environmental Statistics.- An Environmental Module and the Complete System of National Accounts.- Notes on Economic Depreciation of Natural Resource Stocks and National Accounting.- Some Theoretical Problems in Accounting for Sustainable Consumption.- Valuation and Treatment of Depletable Resources in the National Accounts.- Depletable Resources: Fixed Capital or Inventories?.- Accounting for the Contribution of Environments to Economic Macroprozesses.- Substitution of Transport Activities: An Input-Output Approach to Determine Economic and Environmental Effects.- Environmental Accounting: Some Non-Technical Remarks.- The National Accounts and the Environment.- "Eco Domestic Product": The Answer to Which Question?.- Applying the Notions of Capital and Income to Natural Depletable Resources in Economic Accounts.- A Stylized Model for Calculating Avoidance Costs.- Classification in Environmental Accounting: Some Observations on the Present State.- Environmental Variables in National Accounts: A Case Study for Italy.- Environment in a National Accounts Framework: The Austrian Approach to Environmental Accounting.- China's Research on Resource Accounting and Its Application to the National Economic Accounting System.- Natural Resource Accounting: The Norwegian Experience.- National Resource Accounting in Finland.- Causer-Related Indicators for Stresses upon the Environment. A Contribution to the Environmental Satellite-System of the Austrian SNA.- Selected Issues in Integrated Environmental Economic Accounting.- System for Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) of the United Nations.- Annex.- Mailing Addresses of Authors.