Taking the environment into account Everything about the environmental accounts

Within the framework of environmental accounts, economic and environmental data are linked. The website environmental accounting renders it possible to carry out environmental evaluations also for the individual EU Member States and to compare them to each other. In this way, the effects of economic and social activities in the EU on the environment become more transparent.

Individual evaluations

Which correlation exists between economic growth and resource consumption, and which between energy taxes and emissions?
How does the ranking of the individual EU Member States look like in this context? 

Answers to these questions are represented in an illustrative way on the websit environmental accounting in the form of Google Motion Charts. Users can design by means of this tool individual evaluations on numerous questions.

Including technical glossary and calendar

The website offers also a comprehensive glossary explaining economic and environmental technical terms. The calendar of events informs about current meetings and conferences dealing with environmental economics issues

Furthermore, the website provides background information on the methodology and presents concrete fields of application.  It contains also links to institutions in Austria, in the EU, and at international level. The offer of information is supplemented by details on the structure of environmental accounts.

European and global dimension

The environmental accounts are incorporated in the Directions of the EU on environmental indicators as green national accounting. They are to measure the compliance with the goals of sustainable development, the European strategy “Europe 2020”, and the EU environmental policy. The environmental accounts play a special role in the Commission Communication on “GDP and beyond”. There exists already the respective legal basis for the preparation of individual modules of the environmental accounts by the EU Regulation on European environmental economic accounts.

Also at UN level, a statistical standard has been developed, which covers all aspects of the environmental accounts. 

The website has been developed in cooperation with the Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt), the Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism (Bundesministerium für Nachhaltigkeit und Tourismus) (then Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management – Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft) and Statistics Austria (Statistik Austria) with co-financing from the European Commission. Updating and the permanent operation are subsidised by the Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism.