[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 18 (Friday, January 27, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5374-5375]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-01608]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET


Revised Strategic Plan on Statistics for Environmental-Economic 
Decisions

AGENCY: Office of Management and Budget.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB)--on behalf of the 
Interagency Policy Working Group on Statistics for Environmental-
Economic Decisions (Working Group)--is announcing the availability of a 
finalized Strategic Plan on Statistics for Environmental-Economic 
Decisions, which was revised in response to public comments and other 
information received.

DATES: Work described in the Strategic Plan to develop natural capital 
accounts and environmental-economic statistics is ongoing at the time 
of publication and

[[Page 5375]]

is planned to continue through 2036, with regular updating of these 
statistics planned thereafter.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information, contact: 
Andrew Stawasz, email: [email protected], telephone: 
(202) 881-7051.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On August 22, 2022, OMB, on behalf the 
Working Group, issued ``Request for Information To Support the 
Development of a Strategic Plan on Statistics for Environmental-
Economic Decisions.'' 87 FR 51450. The Working Group is co-chaired by 
OMB, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Department of 
Commerce. The Request for Information announced the availability of a 
draft document entitled ``National Strategy to Develop Statistics for 
Environmental-Economic Decisions: A U.S. System of Natural Capital 
Accounting and Associated Environmental-Economic Statistics'' 
(Strategic Plan) and initiated a 60-day public comment period. Public 
comments received are available via www.regulations.gov under docket 
number OMB-2022-0009. The Working Group revised the Strategic Plan in 
response to comments and other information received and is now 
announcing the availability of the final Strategic Plan, available at 
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Natural-Capital-Accounting-Strategy-final.pdf.
    Following the Administration's commitment to initiate natural 
capital accounts and environmental-economic statistics in April 2022, 
Statistics for Environmental-Economic Decisions makes five 
recommendations to Federal departments and agencies for how to develop 
and use natural capital accounts and environmental-economic statistics.
    1. The natural capital accounts and environmental-economic 
statistics should be pragmatic and provide information to:
    a. Guide sustainable development and macroeconomic decision making;
    b. Support Federal decision making in programmatic, policy, and 
regulatory settings;
    c. Provide structure and data that promote the competitiveness of 
U.S. businesses;
    d. Support resilient state, territorial, Indigenous, Tribal, and 
local communities; and
    e. Facilitate conservation and environmental policy.
    2. The natural capital accounts and associated environmental-
economic statistics should provide domestic comparability through time 
and advance international comparisons and harmonization in order to 
enable the United States to lead with respect to the development of 
global standards and implementation of those standards.
    3. The natural capital accounts and associated environmental-
economic statistics should be embedded in the broader U.S. economic 
statistical system, and guide the process of embedding with three sub-
recommendations. Federal departments and agencies should:
    a. Incorporate the internationally-agreed standards of the U.N. 
System of Environmental Economic Accounting to guide development of 
U.S. natural capital accounts, where those standards are relevant to 
the United States and robustly developed. This includes following the 
standard supply-use framework that structures national economic 
accounts;
    b. Adhere to more than one, but a small number of, specific asset 
boundaries, connected to economic activities, in order to accommodate 
different applications and contexts and be inclusive of different uses 
and perspectives; and
    c. Use rigorous and the best available economic science for 
monetizing the value of natural assets.
    4. Federal departments and agencies should use a 15-year phased 
approach to transition from research grade environmental-economic 
statistics and natural capital accounts to core statistical products, 
and produce a single headline summary statistic, along with supporting 
products, tables and reports that provide information in physical and 
monetary units.
    a. The phased approach is designed to enable new information to be 
available early in the process, facilitate the first pilot accounts 
appearing in 2023, provide for testing and development, while over the 
long term meeting high statistical standards and producing a durable 
and more comprehensive set of statistics to expand the national 
economic accounts.
    b. The Strategic Plan recommends that natural capital accounts 
produce a new forward-looking headline measure focused on the change in 
wealth held in nature: Change in Natural Asset Wealth. Integrating this 
new measure with changes in GDP would provide a more complete and more 
useful view of U.S. economic progress. Pairing Change in Natural Asset 
Wealth with GDP would help society tell if today's consumption is being 
accomplished without compromising the future opportunities that nature 
provides.
    c. The Strategic Plan also recommends the use of dashboards for 
biological and physical measures.
    5. The Federal Government should apply existing authorities and 
make use of the substantial expertise within Federal departments and 
agencies, by coordinating across agencies, to develop and update the 
system of natural capital accounts and environmental-economic 
statistics in an efficient manner.

Richard L. Revesz,
Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2023-01608 Filed 1-26-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3110-01-P