Kinshasa, 01/10/2022 : Environmental Economic Accounting Bill tabled

Hon. Engelemba

eeac 1Deputy Célestin Engelemba has tabled a bill on the establishment of a national system of economic and environmental accounting in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This bill, which was tabled on Saturday, October 1st 2022, is timely because although the DRC has owned the issues of sustainable exploitation of natural resources and nature conservation through the ratification of several international conventions (Convention on Biological Diversity, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement), environmental economic accounting (EEA) is not yet integrated into the National Accounts framework and therefore cannot assist decision-makers informing their policy choices as they set about to deliver these multilateral commitments to nature conservation and sustainable development.

According to the author of this new bill, the national accounts do not take into consideration environmental assets and flows (physical and monetary). The National Accounts take into account wood, but not ecosystem services such as the carbon sequestration capacity of the DRC forests (155 million km2) and the storage capacity of its peatlands (145,500 km2).

The elected representative of the electoral district of Mokoto in the province of Tshuapa has, in this text, posed two major questions: 'What is the numerical value of our forests, of our ecosystem services, of the benefits offered to human societies by ecosystem services, andwWhat is the numerical value of our Biodiversity? Secondly, our renewable and non-renewable natural resources (minerals, fossils) are being depleted. This depletion does not appear in our National Accounts.

How can we talk about a DRC "Country - solution" to the climate crisis when the sequestration capacity of its 155 million km2 of forests and the storage capacity of its 145,500 km2 of peatlands is not properly valued, the values of its biodiversity and ecosystem services are not known? Thus, billions of dollars are probably being ignored. Environmental Economic Accounting will enable the accounting of our ecosystem services and biodiversity. In addition, it will allow us to have quantified data on our resources and their depletion. How can we talk about sustainable development if we cannot take into account the depletion aspect? Because, sustainable development would like the current generation to use the resources without compromising their use by future generations.'

eeac2The establishment of a National System of Economic and Environmental Accounting (NSEEA) will allow to overcome the shortcomings of the National Accounting System and a better consideration of natural assets and environmental flows for a truly sustainable development.