Submission on Stats NZ data quality plan

^{Queenstown; Lawrence Murray, Wikimedia Commons}

The Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has made a submission on Stats NZ’s Measuring an inclusive and sustainable economy proposed data quality plan.

The primary focus of the proposed data quality plan relates to the development of economic statistics. While environment gets some mention, the key priorities are all fundamentally macroeconomic with limited relevance to the environment. The only exception is the proposal to improve measurement of greenhouse gas emissions.

Yet, as the Commissioner has argued many times, the economy relies on the environment. The environment should be viewed as foundational, with all economic activity embedded within the natural world. This relationship should be reflected in the development of any statistical framework that seeks to better measure and assess the environmental sustainability of economic activity.

The office recommends that the final data quality plan:

• Includes greater consideration of initiatives intended to provide more comprehensive and robust measurement of the sustainability of New Zealand’s economy. These initiatives should be prioritised on the basis that they address key data gaps and recognise the fundamental importance of the relationship between the natural environment and New Zealand’s economy.
• Includes a core set of natural capital accounts based on the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting. This statistical framework should be drawn on to provide indicators that account for natural capital stocks and associated ecosystem services.
• Clarifies and strengthens links with other relevant initiatives, including the Data Investment Plan, Indicators Aotearoa New Zealand and the environmental reporting programme.