Environmental Protection Expenditure in European Union

Abstract

Environmental protection expenditure should show the efforts being made to prevent, reduce and eliminate pollution resulting from the production or consumption of goods and services. The chapter presents the basic definitions and survey results of environmental protection expenditure in 25 European Union countries. Environmental protection expenditure (EPE) is defined as the amount of money spent on all purposeful activities directly aimed at the prevention, reduction and elimination of pollution or nuisances resulting from the production processes (or consumption of goods and services). Data on environmental expenditure are collected from the European countries through the Joint OECD/Eurostat Questionnaire on Environmental Protection Expenditure and Revenues (EPER). The data covers five economic variables:  investments for environmental protection:  pollution treatment investments,  pollution prevention investments,  current expenditure for environmental protection,  subsidies/transfers given for environmental protection activities. The Questionnaire EPER contains also the data concerning household’s expenditure for environmental protection. The scope of Environmental Protection is defined according to the Classification of Environmental Protection Activities (CEPA, 2000), which distinguishes nine different environmental domains: protection of ambient air and climate, wastewater management, waste management, protection and remediation of soil, groundwater and surface water, noise and vibration abatement, protection of biodiversity and landscapes, protection against radiation, research and development and other environmental protection activities. The purpose of the chapter is to provide the information, how vary the environmental protection expenditure in European Union over the years and what are the trends in specific domains of environmental protection. The comparison between the amount of costs in different countries of European Union is very interesting. Environmental protection is an action or activity (which involves the use of equipment, labour, manufacturing techniques and practices, information networks or products) where the main purpose is to collect, treat, reduce, prevent, or eliminate pollutants and pollution or any other degradation of the environment resulting from the operating activity of the organization.