Federal Planning Bureau (FPB)

Sectoral and environmental accounts and analyses

Federal Planning Bureau

Rue Belliard 14-18

1040 Brussels

Belgium

Air emissions accounts (AEA) record flows of gaseous and particulate materials emitted into the atmosphere as a result of economic activity.

AEA are a subset of environmental-economic accounts. They offer a detailed breakdown for 64 emitting economic activities (NACE), plus households, as defined in the national accounts of EU countries. They are aligned with economic statistics and GDP. These features make them suitable for integrated environmental-economic analyses and modelling – for example of 'carbon footprints' and climate-change modelling scenarios.

National Statistical Institutes (NSI) submit AEA to Eurostat through a mandatory annual data collection. The data collection includes an electronic questionnaire and this quality report.

The AEA dataset has the following dimensions:

1)           Air pollutant: Emissions to air of the following gaseous and particulate substances are collected (greenhouse gases, air pollutants):

Carbon dioxide without emissions from biomass (CO2),

Carbon dioxide from biomass (Biomass CO2)*,

Nitrous oxide (N2O), Methane (CH4),

Perfluorocarbons (PFCs),

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs),

Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) including nitrogen trifluoride (NF3),

Nitrogen oxides (NOx),

Non-methane volatile organic compounds, (NMVOC),

Carbon monoxide (CO),

Particulate matter < 10μm (PM10),

Particulate matter < 2,5μm (PM2,5),

Sulphur dioxide (SO2),

Ammonia (NH3)

2)           Geopolitical entity: EU Member States, EFTA Countries, Candidate Countries etc.

3)           Economic activities: include 64 production activities (classified by NACE rev.2 A*64), and households’ consumption (3 sub-classes).

4)           Time: reference year for which air emissions are reported

5)           Unit: tonnes and thousand tonnes

The data refer to national economies as defined in the system of national accounts. Greenhouse gases and air pollutants emitted by resident units representing the national economy are covered.

Conceptually AEA belong to the international system of environmental economic accounting (SEEA-Central Framework). Furthermore, AEA is one of several physical modules of Eurostat's programme on European environmental economic accounts. It is covered by Regulation (EU) No.691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts.

AEA are closely related to concepts and definitions of national accounts. Most notably, they follow the residence principle, i.e. they record emissions related to resident unit's activities, regardless where those occur geographically.

Further methodological guidelines are provided in various publications by Eurostat (see Eurostat website > Environment > Methodology, heading: 'Air emissions accounts').

Data refer to emissions by resident economic units in the sense of SEEA CF 2012 and National Accounts (ESA), including households.

The national economy is as defined in SEEA CF 2012 and National Accounts (ESA), i.e. all economic activities undertaken by resident units.

The reference area is the economic territory as defined in SEEA CF 2012 and National Accounts (ESA). A unit is said to be a resident unit of a country when it has a 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.

By following this residence principle, the Air Emission Accounts record emissions from resident units' activities, regardless where they occur. This is the main conceptual difference to emission inventories for greenhouse gases (UNFCCC) and air pollutants (CLRTAP).

Not applicable because AEA are not reported as indices.

The unit of measure is tonnes or thousand tonnes.

F-gases (HFC, PFC, SF₆ and NF₃) are reported in tonnes of CO₂ equivalents.

SO_X are reported in tonnes of SO₂ equivalents, and NO_X are reported in tonnes of NO₂ equivalents.

The data refer to calendar years.

Air emissions accounts (AEA) are legally covered by Regulation (EU) 691/2011 on European Environmental Economic Accounts.

Not applicable at national level.

Law of 4 July 1962 on public statistics.

There are no dataset specific rules.

We don't have any confidential figures in the AEA

There is no publicly available release calendar. AEA data are released each year at the end of September after their approval by the scientific committee of the Institute for National Accounts and their ensuing delivery to Eurostat.

non-existent

AEA data are publicly available on the website of the Federal Planning Bureau. Press releases were edited to deliver those data to the public.

Data are disseminated annually.

Text for press release was pre-written to send to various Belgian journals.

Federal Planning Bureau, Institute for National Accounts, Air Emissions Accounts 2008-2021, September 2023 (available in French and Dutch).

https://www.plan.be/publications/publication-2290-nl-luchtemissierekeningen_2008_2020

Data -> Environmental econonomic accounts and analyses -> Air Emissions Accounts (2008-2020)

https://www.plan.be/publications/publication-2290-nl-luchtemissierekeningen_2008_2020

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

no microdata available

The AEA data are also disseminated by Eurostat by means of the Eurobase website.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

A detailed description of the methodology can be found in  Janssen L. (2013), Air Emissions Accounts for Belgium – Methodology, May, Federal Planning Bureau, Brussels, 20 p.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

There is no document describing the measures to assure the quality of AEA data apart from the Eurostat quality report

The AEA standard tables contain in-built plausibility checks, while Eurostat provides a validation procedure.

The data are also validated by the scientific committee of the Institute for National Accounts.

 No specific management system is used. Quality is assured by the Scientific Committee of the National Accounts Institute.

No measurement

The AEA tables are filled for the time period 2008-2021.
The optional tables on raod-related emissions were not completed in 2023 (data 2021)

Not applicable; To ensure comparability, this will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT in the European quality report using a standardised method.

See Annex 1.
Info included in the Annex 1 can be extended to the year 2021, as no methodological changes were made regarding this issue.

Not applicable because data are not based on a sample survey.

Not applicable because data are not based on a sample survey.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The data set with reference year 2021 was ready half September 2023. This does not imply that at that moment the data were available to the public, though. This is the case only after approval by both the Scientific Committee and the Direction Committee of the Institute for National Accounts. As a consequence, the Belgian AEA are publicly available only at the end of September.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

All data were delivered on time.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

AEA are compiled according to harmonised guidelines provided by Eurostat and hence comparable across European countries reporting AEA to Eurostat.

Not applicable.

See Annex 2.
No breaks in time series because we have discarded data prior to 2008, which were not revised (data from 2008 onwards were revised)

Not applicable; To ensure comparability, this will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT in the European quality report using a standardised method.

no cross domain checking

Not applicable, because AEA data are annual.

In Belgium, the statistical unit used to build the National and Regional Accounts is the enterprise. And each enterprise is associated with a unique NACE (economic activity). However, the regional air emissions inventories use enterprise establishments as the statistical unit. And each establishment is associated with a particular NACE. Consequently, it is possible that two establishments belonging to the same enterprise have a different NACE at the regional level, while at the national level they both have the same NACE, the one of the enterprise they belong to. Some incoherence may thus appear in the allocation of regionally calculated air emissions to the different industries when national allocation keys are used.

Moreover, the regional administrations provide conversion tables which allow us to identify which processes in the regional emissions inventories refer to which industries in the final use table.

Data from the NA Supply and Use Tables are used to calculate maritime transport for the entire time series.

We use excise duties which are based on the NA system to allocate road transport emissions to the NACEs.

Data are internally consistent

This year we spent about 1.5 months on the production of the AEA.

When data are revised, the entire series is recalculated according to the new methodology.

Regional emissions inventories are revised yearly. Two reports : the National Inventory Report^[1] regarding the greenhouse gas inventory and the Informative Inventory Report^[2] linked to the LRTAP inventory explain any substantial differences and major evolutions between two subsequent submissions of the air emissions inventories.

The model used for the estimation of road transport pollution has also been intensively revised, implicating changes in data related to road transport.

The calculations based on the OECD database on carbon dioxide emissions caused by air transport were also revised (last year, we had a misconcept between CO2 and CO2-equivalent with those data)

Not applicable; To ensure comparability, this will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT in the European quality report using a standardised method.

yearly

no surveys

Validation checks are built into the AEA questionnaire. These are applied, after which explanations are added in footnotes where necessary.

no surveys

Not applicable.

Not applicable; i.e. in AEA no time series adjustment necessary.

Not applicable.