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Portugal

Environmental protection expenditure accounts based on classification of environmental purpose (CEP) (env_epea_cep)

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National Reference Metadata in Single Integrated Metadata Structure (SIMS)

Compiling agency: [PT1] Statistics Portugal

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Environmental protection expenditure accounts (EPEA) describe transactions related to preventing, reducing and eliminating pollution and any other degradation of the environment. The main aggregate resulting from EPEA is national expenditure on environmental protection (NEEP), which measures the resources dedicated by resident businesses, households and government to protecting the natural environment. This aggregate covers uses of environmental protection services, investment (gross fixed capital formation) for environmental protection activities, and net transfers with the rest of the world for environmental protection. Countries are required to report on: output, consumption, imports and exports of environmental protection services, investment (gross fixed capital formation and acquisitions less disposals of non-produced non-financial assets) for the production of EP services, transfers for environmental protection.

31 January 2026

The construction of the EPEA closely follows the concepts, definitions and accounting rules of the core national accounts. The SEEA-CF 2012 (section 4.2) identifies environmental protection activities as those activities whose primary purpose is the prevention, reduction and elimination of pollution and other forms of degradation of the environment. These activities include, but are not limited to, the prevention, reduction or treatment of waste and wastewater; the prevention, reduction or elimination of air emissions; the treatment and disposal of contaminated soil and groundwater; the prevention or reduction of noise and vibration levels; the protection of biodiversity and landscapes, including of their ecological functions; monitoring of the quality of the natural environment (air, water, soil and groundwater); research and development on environmental protection; and the general administration, training and teaching activities oriented towards environmental protection.

Environmental protection expenditure accounts present data, in a way that is compatible with the data reported under ESA, on the expenditure for environmental protection, i.e. the economic resources devoted by resident units to environmental protection. EPEA use statistical units from national accounts. National accounts define and use various statistical units and groupings of units that interact economically (see ESA 2010, §§ 1.54-1.56, 2.01-2.03).

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 to produce environmental protection specific services. While some economic activities may be undertaken only for a single purpose, many activities are undertaken for a variety of purposes. Following general principles of classification, activities are deemed to be environmental activities only if the primary purpose of the activity is consistent with the definitions of the environmental protection.

The reference area of the statistics is Portugal. The reference area is the economic territory as defined in the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010). A unit is said to be a resident unit of a country when it has its centre of economic interest in the economic territory of that country, that is, when it engages for an extended period (1 year or more) in economic activities in that territory.

The reference period for EPEA data is the calendar year.

i) Accuracy of data reported is ensured by:

  • a thorough selection of the EPEA account's universe;
  • the use of the same micro data as for the NA and consistency checks with NA totals (OPSEC by product and NACE; the checks possible with COFOG data);
  • the use of environmental coefficients from several data sources such as annual specific surveys and consistency checks;

ii) The quality of data should be improved, mainly on:

  • transfers and subsidies, in order to only include everything that is supposed (some data is missing, related to European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) that were not possible to analyse yet), and better classified by CEP;
  • intermediate consumption of EP services to produce EP services - it is not easy to separate from the total intermediate consumption. The structure of Intermediate consumption matrix at NA is used;
  • consistency checks on CEP classifications of Output and Exports, by KAU and detailed Exports/Output checks at corporations’ level shall improve output’s level by CEP;
  • continuous improvement work is carried out between COFOG and EPEA managers. NA Benchmark years changes are opportunities to improve pendent issues.

iii) Comparison with other sources where identified and available; enhancement of consistency checks; improve CEP classification for some items.

Macro economic variables (output, intermediate consumption, investment etc.) are measured in million units of national currency.

National Accounts are the primary data source, complemented by other administrative sources and surveys, as detailed in the sections that follow. For this time series (2021–2023), data were updated using National Accounts with 2021 as the benchmark year and applying the new Classification of Environmental Purpose (CEP). With the adoption of the new classification, efforts were made to include certain resource‑management domains for which information is available in Portugal. However, time constraints limited the number of variables that could be compiled, and their compilation was feasible only for the year 2023. Portugal intends to extend the compilation of variables in the resource‑management domains (former CReMA) to cover the years since 2021. Accuracy has been subject to ongoing improvements. Most variables have been calculated as precisely as possible.

However:

  • Some improvements were recently achieved since EPEA Qx 2022 (due to the compilation of the ESST questionnaire). (D21–D31.7)
  • VAT and other taxes less subsidies on EP services can be better analyzed to consider inherent exclusions and to ensure the envisaged accounting rules.
  • Final consumption compilation used a simplified method. Since EPEA Qx 2023, the methodology suggested by Italy was followed for data reporting on inter‑consumption related characteristics.
  • A webinar (September 2023) on accounting item P2_EPS_EXT discussed supply and demand for the various environmental protection products/services included in the EPEA.

Source data - detailed - General government and NPISH 

Table S13_S15) General government and NPISH:

A) Statistics Portugal sources:

  •  Annual Portuguese National Accounts (NA) namely NA work files - total output, market output, non-market output and output for own-final use data, by kind of activity unit (KAU); COFOG 05 data from General Government (GG) Accounts (S.13);
  • Business Register of Statistical Units (BR);

Dedicated annual surveys:

  • Environmental Goods and Services Sector Survey (ISBSA) - annual; respondents are a sample, selected from the BR, Portuguese Association of Environmental Technologies Companies (APEMETA) and the National Directory of Environment and Natural Resources (note that the results of the 2018 ISBSA survey were much improved)  Data used to calculate environmental coefficients;
  • Survey on Urban Waste Management Entities (IEGRU) - annual; respondents are waste management entities who provide waste collection and transport services on behalf of municipal councils, in particular municipal enterprises and municipal services – for S.13, specifically for CEPA 2 and 3;
  • Municipal Environmental Protection Survey (IMPA) - annual; respondents are all municipal councils in domains 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9. The survey is nationwide, exhaustive and carried out by Web – for S.13, specifically for CEPA 2 and 3;
  • Survey on Non-Governmental Environmental Organizations (IONGA) - annual; respondents are all the national Non-Governmental Environmental Organizations (NGEO) listed in the Portuguese Environmental Agency file, which, in turn, correspond to the organizations which have been granted the legal NGEO status. Therefore, the survey is exhaustive and no sampling is used – for S.15;

B) Other sources:

  • Detailed analytical annual balance sheets of GG entities, including the General State Account and Regional Governments Madeira and Azores (note that to each GG entity a Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG) is assigned to the majority of ESA transactions) – for S.13;                                                         
  • Database on wages from Social Security service (BDRSS) – for S.15;
  • Simplified Business Information (SBI) - annual; essentially modules: (i) resident entities having, mainly, commercial, industrial or agricultural activity and entities not residents with a permanent establishment (Annex A) or (ii) resident entities which do not carry out principal, commercial, industrial or agricultural activity (Annex D); output, market output, non-market output and output for own use, by entity, for S.15; P51G_NP for S.13;
  • National Scientific and Technological Potential Survey (IPCTN) - annual; respondents are entities from the National Scientific and Technological System that answer that they had R&D environmental projects in the R&D survey - output for own-final use for S.13 and S.15;
  • Biographic enrolment of higher education teachers (REBIDES) - annual information; respondents are all higher education teachers in environmental areas – environmental coefficients;
  • Survey to higher education teachers by degree cycle (ID) - annual information; respondents are all higher education teachers in environmental areas – environmental coefficients;
  • Web pages of units of economic activity;
  • Reports and Accounts;
  • Other sectorial online directories.                     

Source data - detailed – Corporations (specialist and ancillary)

Tables S11_S12) Corporations:

i) Specialist and secondary producers of market EP services:

A) Statistics Portugal sources:

  • Portuguese National Accounts (Base 2016), namely National Accounts (NA) work files - total output, market output, non-market output and output for own use data, by KAU, in the Non financial corporations + Households institutional sectors (S.11+S.14);
  • Business Register of Statistical Units (BR);
  • Farm Structure Survey (FSS) and Agricultural Census – environmental coefficients for organic farming.

Dedicated annual surveys:

Environmental Goods and Services Sector Survey (ISBSA) - annual; respondents are a sample, selected from the BR, Portuguese Association of Environmental Technologies Companies (APEMETA) and the National Directory of Environment and Natural Resources – environmental coefficients;

B) Other sources (please see above the main characteristics):

  • Simplified Business Information (SBI) / Integrated Business Accounts - Data on market output, and output for own use, by entity, indirectly used for S.11+S.14;
  • National Scientific and Technological Potential Survey (IPCTN) – R&D survey - output for own final use;
  • Biographic enrolment of higher education teachers (REBIDES) – environmental coefficients;
  • Survey to higher education teachers by degree cycle (ID) - environmental coefficients;
  • Web pages of units of economic activity;
  • Reports and Accounts: Annual
  • Other sectorial online directories.

                              ii) Corporations other:

Business Survey on Management and Protection of the Environment (IEGPA) – annual; sample, directed to companies whose economic activity is included in the extractive industries, manufactures, electricity, gas, steam, hot and cold water and cold air and “captation”, treatment and distribution of water; sanitation, waste management and “depollution”, with other divisions than Collection, drainage and waste water treatment, Collection, treatment and disposal of waste; materials recovery and decontamination and activities. IEGPA only covers NACE Rev.2- divisions 05 to 36. Other NACE categories are not covered. 

Source data - detailed - Household 

Table S14) Households:

Annual NA’ Supply and use table (SUT).

Source data - detailed - other macro-economic data (import, export, VAT etc.)

Table S1_S2) Total economy and Rest of the world:

For financing flows it was used annual information of GG Accounts.

  • At transfers level, there are some important files annually received by Statistics Portugal from Portuguese responsible management entities of European Funds, that constitute files collecting all the amounts received by beneficiary entity, namely for European Social Fund (ESF), Agricultural Funds (namely European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), with important components of environmental nature), European regional development fund (ERDF), Cohesion Fund, etc.;
  • GG Accounts' data by type of transfers paid and received.

For exports and imports only EP services were considered (international trade of goods, included in each product was not considered).

  • For the exports of EP services that are not entirely environmental, it was considered the weight of the production of these services in the EPEA over the production of the National Accounts multiplied by the total exports of these services.
  • For the imports of EP services that are not entirely environmental, it was considered the weight of the production of these services in the EPEA over the production of the National Accounts multiplied by the total imports of these services.

Source data - detailed - national expenditure on environmental protection NEEP

For NEEP estimation, the automatic calculation is used.

Source data - detailed – other information

No specific aditional data sources are used for NEEP estimation.

Yearly.

EPEA results are disseminated nationally/ provided to data users at a national level 27 / 28 months after the reference period.

Not applicable at national level.

Portugal currently has two EPEA statistical series:

  • 2014–2022, compiled according to the CEPA / CReMA classification.
  • 2021–2023, compiled under the new CEP classification and aligned with National Accounts (NA) Base 2021.

With respect to the CEPA / CReMA series:

  1. Consistency of the time series
    • Data for 2014, 2015 and 2016 are coherent and based on NA (Base 2011).
    • From 2017 to 2021, the compilation uses NA (Base 2016) as the benchmark.
  2. Break in the series in 2017
    A methodological break occurs in 2017, because the data for this year:
    i. are aligned with the benchmark year of NA (Base 2016);
    ii. integrate revisions resulting from the CEPA and CReMA explanatory notes published in January 2021;
    iii. incorporate the 2021 guidelines on electric vehicles (EVs), clarifying that EVs correspond to EP products, not EP services, and therefore their output is excluded from the EPEA (only related EP services—such as R&D—are included);
    iv. include revisions to Transfers, focusing the recording on transfers related to EP services and excluding transfers whose production or GFCF/NP is not reflected in other NEEP variables;
    v. includes adjustments related to the harmonization of the statistical universe, mainly within institutional sector S.11.
  3. Break in the series in 2019
    A further break occurs in 2019, because the data from that year incorporate the methodology proposed by Italy (Webinar on mandatory EPEA reporting for intermediate consumption characteristics, September 2023).
    These methodological improvements affect P2_EPS_EXT.2 and P2_EPS_EXT.3, where a balance was sought between supply and demand for the various environmental protection products/services considered in the EPEA.
    For years prior to 2019, the amounts used for P2_EPS_EXT.3 were identical to those estimated for P2_EPS.3.
  4. Revisions from 2018 onwards
    From 2018 onwards, additional revisions were made in Transfers due to the compilation of the ESST questionnaire.
    The necessary adjustments were introduced to ensure compliance with EPEA requirements and guarantee internal consistency.