11/03/2021 (Agence Europe) – The European Commission will propose a revision of the European Environmental Economic Accounts (EEAA) regulation to include a new module on natural capital accounting, the institution announced on 11 March. This change will be consistent with the new statistical framework agreed on the previous day at the UN to better integrate biodiversity and ecosystems into national economic planning and policy-making. It goes beyond the commonly used gross domestic product (GDP) data and ensures that nature capital—the contributions of forests, oceans and other ecosystems—is added to the existing economic accounts. Welcoming this development, Commissioner for Environment Virginijus Sinkevičius commented, “We need to use rigorous methods to control investments, impacts and dependencies in relation to nature.” (AN)