Press Release 26/10/2022

ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTS. ENVIRONMENTAL GOODS AND SERVICES ACCOUNT. 2020

The environmental economy of the Basque Country generated Gross Value Added of 1,390 million euros in 2020

In terms of employment, the environmental economy generated 20,896 jobs, 2.3% of the total economy

According to data from the Environmental Goods and Services Account prepared by Eustat, the Gross Value Added (GVA) of the environmental economy stood at 1,390 million euros in 2020, equivalent to 1.94% of GDP, 8 hundredths more than the previous year. Compared to 2019, the year-on-year rate of environmental GVA was down 5.8%, a more measured decrease than that experienced by the Gross Domestic Product for the whole economy in the same period, which shrank by 9.7%.

The Environmental Goods and Services Account is part of the system of environmental accounts and is prepared according to Eurostat's methodology. These accounts allow for a coherent integration of economic and environmental aspects within the National Accounts system. The environmental goods and services (environmental economy) sub-sector is composed of the segment of the economy dedicated to the production of goods and services for environmental protection and activities related to the management of natural resources to reduce or eliminate environmental pressures.

By economic sector and in relation to GVA, in 2020 it is worth highlighting the contribution of Services (28.4%), followed by Extraction and manufacturing industries (25.0%) and Water supply, waste cleanup and management (21.3%), Construction (16.5%), Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (5.8%) and finally, the Primary sector (3.0%).

If we look at the evolution over time, it can be seen that in most sectors there was a drop in environmental GVA. Of particular note were the Agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing sector, with a negative year-on-year rate of 17.0%, followed by the Construction sector, which fell by 12.0%, and the Extraction and manufacturing industries with -9.2%. Lastly, the Electric energy, gas, steam and air conditioning supply sector, together with the Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities underwent a somewhat more moderate drop, at -6.8% and -6.2% respectively. The Services sector was the only one which showed a positive trend, with an increase of 3.8%.

Employment generated by environmental activities, measured as full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs, rose to 2.3% of total employment in 2020, although it dropped 2.4% compared to 2019.

If we analyse environmental employment by economic sector, the Services sector comes out top with 30.2% of total environmental employment, 1.6% higher than 2019, followed by Extraction and manufacturing industries with 25.0%, Construction with 20.6%, and Water supply and waste cleanup and management activities, with 20.1%. Conversely, the sectors with the lowest contribution to environmental employment were the Primary and the Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply sectors, with 3.8% and 0.3%, respectively.

In year-on-year terms, the sectors that stood out in terms of the evolution of environmental employment in 2020 were the Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply sector, with a year-on-year rate of 24.8%, significantly higher than the previous period and, some way behind, the Primary sector, with growth of 8.2% compared to the previous year.

Taking into account the main indicators that relate the environmental sub-sector with the economy as a whole, environmental GVA accounted for 1.94% of GDP in 2020, eight hundredths more than the previous year, and Full-time Employment accounted for 2.29% of employment as a whole, nine hundredths higher than the previous year.

Regarding the contribution of the Basque Country to the total Spanish economy, it was observed that the GVA of the environmental economy in the Basque Country generated 5.0% of the environmental GVA of Spain in 2020. Furthermore, environmental employment in the Basque Country represented 4.8% of environmental employment generated nationally.

With regard to environmental GVA in relation to GDP, the value in Spain stood at 2.49%, higher than in the Basque Country , which reached 1.94% in 2020.

For the comparison with Europe, we analysed the latest data published by Eurostat, corresponding to 2019. The indicator of Environmental GVA on GDP in the Basque Country was 1.86%, similar to surrounding countries such as France (1.84%), Italy (1.90%) or Germany (1.96%). This data is lower than the average for the EU-27, with 2.32%. At the very top of the table were countries such as Finland (5.77%), Estonia (4.55%), Austria (4.21%) and Denmark (3.37%).

Following the European Regulation, two major domains stand out in terms of their environmental goals: environmental protection activities and resource management activities, categorised into two mutually exclusive classifications. On the one hand, environmental protection activities are described in the Classification of Environmental Protection Activities (CEPA) and, on the other, resource management activities for environmental protection are described in the Classification of Resource Management Activities (CRMA).

The domain that stood out with the highest proportion of total environmental GVA generated in 2020, corresponded to the category of Other CEPA, which includes activities related to noise reduction, preservation of biodiversity, protection against radiation and environmental R&D, among others, contributing 28.6%, followed by other activities such as Waste Management, which contributed 22.4% of the total.

The category of Other CRMA, which comprises activities such as the management of water, forest resources and wild fauna and flora, among others, contributed 24.5% of environmental GVA.

In terms of GDP, environmental protection activities (CEPA) contributed 1.14% of GDP in 2020, higher than the 0.79% from resource management activities.

In terms of employment (full-time equivalent jobs), activities associated with environmental protection also accounted for a large proportion of the total, 1.50% compared to 0.78% of resource management. More specifically, the environmental domain that contributed most to employment as a whole was Other CEPA (0.77%), followed by Other CRMA (0.56%).

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tel.: 945 01 75 62