Broader scope and enhanced data for environmental accounts

On 5 November, the Council adopted the amended regulation on the European environmental economic accounts. This is the final step in the legislative process, following adoption by the European Parliament, resulting in a major improvement of the statistical accounts that join economic and environmental information. 

This adoption is an important step forward for the EU’s environmental accounts as it adds three new coverage areas - forests, ecosystems, and environmental subsidies - to the existing six. So far, the regulation has covered greenhouse gases and air pollutants, economy-wide material flow accounts, physical energy flows, environmental taxes, environmental goods and services sector and environmental protection expenditure.

The regulation’s broader scope will bring more complete statistical data and a higher capacity to better inform of the progress made on the European Green Deal, sustainable competitiveness and resilience to climate and environmental impacts.

Based on this amendment, EU countries will start reporting on the three new areas in 2025 and 2026. As part of the legal package, Eurostat already started publishing estimates on climate change mitigation investments in October. A digital publication on climate change mitigation, including investments, will be released next month. 

Following this revision, next month, Eurostat will also launch on its website a new dashboard for environmental economic accounts. This tool will include all key indicators and relevant data and make these data easily accessible to all users.

For more information

• News article on EU Council conclusions
• News article on revised regulation on European statistics
• Press release on Council’s conclusions on EU statistics 2024
• European Green Deal
• Thematic section on environment
• Database on environment
• Statistics Explained article on environmental accounts - establishing the links between the environment and the economy

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