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Environmental goods and services sector (env_egs)

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National Reference Metadata in Single Integrated Metadata Structure (SIMS)

Compiling agency: Statistics Denmark

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The environmental goods and services sector (EGSS) accounts report on an economic sector that generates goods and services produced for environmental protection or the management of natural resources.

Products for environmental protection prevent, reduce and eliminate pollution or any other degradation of the environment. Examples are electric vehicles, catalysts and filters to decrease pollutant emissions, wastewater and waste treatment services, noise insulation works or restoration of degraded habitats.

Products for resource management safeguard the stock of natural resources against depletion. Examples are renewable energy production, energy-efficient and passive buildings, seawater desalinization or rainwater recovery, and materials recovery.

EGSS accounts provide data on output and export of environmental goods and services and on the value added of and employment in the environmental goods and services sector.

EGSS data are compiled following the statistical concepts and definitions set out in the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting 2012 – Central Framework.

15 April 2024

The EGSS statistics aim at compiling data for the following economic variables:

Output: consists of products that become available for use outside of the producer unit, any goods and services produced for own final use and goods that remain in the inventories at the end of the period in which they are produced. Apart from market output, output for own final use and non-market output, EGSS statistics also include ancillary output, comprising output intended for use within an enterprise.

Market output is to be valued at basic prices, that is, the prices receivable by the producer from the purchaser minus taxes and plus subsidies on products.
Output for own final use is to be valued at basic prices of similar products sold on the market or by the total costs of production.
Non-market output is to be estimated by the total costs of production.
Ancillary output is measured as a total of recurrent production costs (such as intermediate consumption, compensation of employees and consumption of fixed capital) incurred by enterprises to: 1) reduce environmental pressures arising from their production process or 2) produce environmental goods or services not intended for use outside the enterprise, but instead supporting other (non-environmental) activities undertaken within the enterprise (e.g. waste management services carried out in-house). For market producers, a mark-up for net operating surplus is added to the value of the EGSS ancillary output.

Gross Value Added: represents the contribution made by the production of environmental goods and services to GDP. It is the difference between the value of the output and intermediate consumption.

Employment: is measured in full-time equivalent jobs engaged in the production of output of environmental goods and services. Full-time equivalent is defined as total hours worked divided by the average annual working hours in a full-time job.

Exports: consist of sales, barter, gifts, or grants, of environmental goods and services from residents to non-residents

The core units in the data collection and dissemination is the legal business units, grouped by type of industry. In few cases the economic unit is used. All units are in principle covered, independent of economic size. For the public sector only aggregated results are used

The statistical population is the national economy as defined in SEEA CF 2012 and the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010). It includes all economic activities undertaken by resident units.

In DK this includes business units in agriculture, manufacturing, energy supply, sewage and waste, construction and professional/scientific areas. Further, public sector actvities in relation to the environmental purposes are covered. 

Denmark

Calender year

Compiled on total turnover for EGSS, the error is expected to be plus/minus 10-15 billion DKK (related to a level for output at 300 billion DKK). The main part of the total error are considered to be due to measurement errors.
 
For value added, employment and export, the errors are of at least same size, relatively, as data are linked.
 
There is no knowledge if the results are over- or underestimating the "true" value.

Turnover, export and value added is shown in million DKK (and in million EURO in Eurostat), current prices. Employment is shown in annual work units, AWU/FTE.

The consistency of the specific collected data is to the possible extend ensured through the validation. 
 
In general, there has been no imputation needed. The final weighting is expected to adjust for non-response.
The data collection on EGSS turnover is based on a stratified sample in the relevant types of industries
 
In the complete statistics also estimates for smaller business units and  compiled results from existing sources are used in the compiling.

Annually.

Results are published in DK October or November after end of reference year
Provisional results for 2019 were published November 19, 2020, together with consolidated data on 2018.
Provisional results for 2020 were published November 15, 2021, together with consolidated data on 2019.
Provisional results for 2021 were published November 9, 2022, together with consolidated data on 2020.
Provisional results for 2022 were published November 16, 2023, together with consolidated data on 2021.
Provisional results for 2023 were published November 22, 2023, together with consolidated data on 2022.
Regarding deliveries to Eurostat - the timelines were kept
The statistics are in line with the Eurostat guidelines. Different methods by country may have impact on the comparability. 
 
Results for more countries are available in Eurostat database.
 
In November 2015 a News release with international comparisons were produced. (Danmark i top-3 med grønne varer og tjenester).
 
In the publication Green National Accounts 2015-16, comparisons also can be found.

The EGSS statistics for 2012, 2013 and 2014 is comparable. Regarding 2015 -2022 , the higher values (compared to 2012-14) for construction and knowledge based service is partly due to improved questionnaire. Regarding the purposes, the improved questionnaire meant in particular higher values for waste water management

Enterprises in type of industry NACE 18xxxx was not surveyed until 2015. Data for previous years has not been estimated.

Enterprises in type of industry NACE 31xxxx was not surveyed until 2021. Data for previous years has not been estimated.

From 2012 to 2017 the totals by  industry and by environmental purpose were similar to the marketable production. For 2018 and onwards the total are including non-market activities as required by regulation.