Environmental Economic Accounting (EEA)

Grassland - cultural landscape in late summer
Photo: BMLUK / AMA-Bioarchiv/Wiesenhofer

Every economy depends on its natural resources. Therefore, it is essential that the environment is taken into account when assessing the prosperity of a society. Environmental economic accounting links economic and environmental data.

Environmental economic accounting captures environmental indicators such as resource consumption or greenhouse gas emissions and relates them to economic figures (e.g., gross domestic product). These accounts largely follow the concepts and rules of the System of National Accounts (SNA). This ensures compatibility between the two systems and allows environmental data to be broken down by economic sectors.

At its core, EEA creates a connection between:

  • Economic aspects, which are recorded in monetary terms in traditional national accounts, and

  • Ecological aspects, which are primarily expressed in physical indicators.

As satellite accounts, they extend the traditional national accounts. This makes environmental economic accounting a suitable methodology to complement the key indicator of the SNA – GDP – with relevant environmental indicators.

By doing so, the environment is included as a relevant factor in the economy. Interactions between the economy, private households, and the environment are thus presented in a consistent system that reflects the overall well-being of society.

Commissioned by the Federal Ministry, environmental economic accounting is an integral part of official statistics in Austria and is published annually.

umweltgesamtrechnung.at – Environmental Data Meets Economic Analysis

What is the relationship between economic growth and resource consumption? How are energy taxes linked to emissions? And how do the individual EU Member States rank in these areas? At umweltgesamtrechnung.at, it is possible to generate and compare environmental evaluations for individual EU Member States. This makes the environmental impacts of economic and societal activities across the European Union more transparent and easier to understand.

The website was developed in cooperation with the Environment Agency Austria, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Climate and Environmental Protection, Regions and Water management (BMLUK), and Statistics Austria, co-financed by the European Commission. Updates and ongoing operations are supported by the BMLUK.

European and Global Dimension

Environmental-economic accounts are embedded in the EU guidelines on environmental indicators as a green accounting system. They are intended to measure the goals of sustainable development, the European strategy "Europe 2020," and EU environmental policy. For the compilation of individual modules of the environmental-economic accounts, there is already a legal basis through the EU Regulation on European environmental-economic accounts (Regulation (EU) No 691/2011), which is continuously expanded with new modules. A statistical standard covering all aspects of environmental-economic accounts has also been developed at the UN level.

Further information