The purpose of environmental-economic accounting is to supplement the conventional national accounts (UN SNA 2008) with tables which inform policymakers of environmental and natural resource availability, use, depletion and degradation. Through such accounts, economic performance measured by aggregates like Gross Domestic Product, Net National Income, Final Consumption, Net Savings, Imports and Exports, Assets and Liabilities or Employment can be balanced by natural capital indicators that describe the opportunities and constraints, benefits and costs, efficiency of resource use, and externalities that arise in relation to interactions with the environment. Implementation of environmental-economic accounts has been recognised as an important step towards: sustainable development (see Agenda 21 of 1992); the measurement of economic progress (see Beyond GDP and the so-called.
