Statistical Service of Cyprus (CYSTAT)

Environment Statistics Unit

Michail Karaoli Str., 1444 Nicosia, Cyprus

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 and nitrogen trifluoride (SF6 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).

The data cover the years 2008 to 2021.

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.

Official statistics are released in accordance with the confidentiality provisions laid down in the following:

• Official Statistics Law of 2021 (Law No. 25(I)/2021) (especially Article 16 on statistical confidentiality).

• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics and its later amendments (especially Chapter 5 on statistical confidentiality).

• European Statistics Code of Practice (especially Principle 5 on statistical confidentiality).

• CYSTAT's Guidelines for the Protection of Confidential Data

Under the provisions of the Official Statistics Law, all the information collected is treated as confidential and is used solely for statistical purposes. No data for any individual enterprise is published or disclosed to either public bodies or private individuals.

No data is considered confidential at the level published. The treatment of confidential data is regulated by CYSTAT's Guidelines for the Protection of Confidential Data.

There is no schedule of release dates related to AEA data on the national website.  Nevertheless, national data are disseminated annually by Eurostat on its database around December. Please see concept 10.3.

Not applicable yet.

Not applicable.

Data are disseminated annually.

There are no news releases set up on the national website. However there are related news releases published by Eurostat on an annual basis around December.

AEA data are not yet published on the national website.  Please find below two related publication websites of Eurostat. 

There are no national databases related to AEA. Please find below related online databases of Eurostat. 

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See Article 11 of the Official Statistics Law of 2021 (Law No. 25(I)/2021)

The quality of statistics in CYSTAT is managed in the framework of the European Statistics Code of Practice which sets the standards for developing, producing and disseminating European Statistics as well as the ESS Quality Assurance Framework (QAF). CYSTAT endorses the Quality Declaration of the European Statistical System. In addition, CYSTAT is guided by the requirements provided for in Article 11 of the Official Statistics Law No. 25(I) of 2021 as well as Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics, which sets out the quality criteria to be applied in the development, production and dissemination of European statistics.

CYSTAT follows the guidelines provided in Eurostat's manual for air emissions accounts and the technical note "Allocating emissions of fluorinated gases to NACE industries in air emissions accounts" which set standards for the compilation of the data.

The quality of statistics is assessed according to five quality criteria: relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, coherence and comparability. CYSTAT endorses the Quality Declaration of the European Statistical System. In addition, CYSTAT is guided by the requirements provided for in Article 11 of the Official Statistics Law of 2021 (Law No. 25(I)/2021) as well as Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics, which sets out the quality criteria to be applied in the development, production and dissemination of European statistics. 

Data on air emissions accounts are an important policy instrument at EU level. Yet, nationally there have not been any clear indications which could help determine the degree of policy need for this data at national level.

Not applicable.

The AEA questionnaire is duly completed for the years 2008-2021, which are mandatory under Regulation (EU) No 691/2011.

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.

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

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

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The first and final estimates for reference year N are available at N+21 months. However, improvements in compilation processes may be applied later on that could affect the data of any of the years of the time series.

Not applicable.

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Eurostat deadlines for disseminating the data are respected. AEA are disseminated to Eurostat by the end of September each year.

Not applicable.

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

Not applicable.

See Annex 2.

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

The main approach used to compile air emission accounts is not the energy-first approach which means that the final result is not entirely coherent with the Physical Energy Flow Accounts (PEFA). Except for the air and water transport emissions, the rest of the categories are calculated using the inventory-first approach. Please see 18.5. 

Not applicable, because AEA data are annual.

AEA data follow the residence principle just like the National Accounts. Find more information on the adjustments made in 18.5.4. 

AEA data are based on the emissions inventories, as reported by the national experts of the Department of Environment and the Department of Labour Inspection to UNFCCC and CLRTAP respectively. The sources used by each of these departments are not entirely identical and therefore the final emissions calculated are not entirely coherent.

The cost and burden for the whole process of compiling the AEA time series each year is about 450 person/hours. Specifically, it's about 3 months of work for one person who is also attending to other work tasks.

There is a formal revision policy at Cystat. Cystat publishes its Revision Policy on its website, describing the general rules and principles governing the procedure of revising data published by Cystat. 

The policy is based on the guidelines of the European Statistical System (ESS) also taking into account the Quality Assurance Framework of the ESS and the European Statistics Code of Practice. 

Specifically, note that whenever there are revisions of National Accounts data or of the emissions inventories, the changes are incorporated in AEA data during the next dissemination to Eurostat.

Whenever there are revisions of the emission inventories, or the auxiliary data, as well as methodological improvements, these are incorporated in the whole time series so as to update and further improve the allocation.

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

Almost all primary data are available at most 18 months after the end of the reference year, but the necessary auxilliary information for the allocation to the economic activities is available around 19-20 months after the end of the reference year.

The primary data information which is received from bodies outside of the Statistical Service is listed under 18.1. Data is usually received by email and reminders are sent where necessary.

Data are carefully examined after collection and compared to previous years' data collections. If the quality of data is unsatisfactory, the providers of the data are contacted and revised data are submitted, where necessary. Otherwise, the part of the data which is of doubtful quality is identified and estimations are made to replace them, based on the rest of the data, on previous years' figures or other auxiliarry sources.

The main approach used to compile air emission accounts is inventory-first, except for the air and water transport emissions where the energy-first approach is used.  The inventory-first approach  starts from existing national emission inventories reported to UNFCCC and CLRTAP and adjusts and re-arranges those data to the AEA format.

Not applicable.

The residence principle adjustment for each NACE division is carried out as follows:

Water transport: Water transport emissions for resident enterprises are calculated using the energy-first approach and guidance from the “EMEP/EEA Air Pollutant Emissions Inventory Guidebook 2016” and the “IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories”. Specifically, shipping fuel consumption is used as the primary data and cover passenger ships, cargo ships and small tourist pleasure boats.  The pleasure boats are used by residents on the territory. The emissions of the other two types of ship are bridged in full by recording them in the “residents abroad” cell, since only a minimal quantity of emissions is released on the territory.

Concerning the emissions reported to UNFCCC, the CRF category “Domestic navigation” only contains emissions of small tourist pleasure boats and these are already included in NACE 50 Water transport, as explained above and so no bridging is necessary. As far as national inventory emissions reported to CLRTAP are concerned, the NFR category “National navigation (Shipping)” records yachts and other vessels’ emissions at the main Cyprus ports. These are separated into residents and non-residents’ emissions using data from arrivals in the main Cyprus ports. The residents’ emissions are further added to the water transport emissions in AEA, while the rest are recorded in the “non-residents on the territory” cell. The pleasure boats used by residents on the territory are not included in the national CLRTAP emissions inventory, so they are bridged in the “Other adjustments and statistical discrepancy” cell.

Fishing: The inventory-first approach is used. There is no need for an adjustment, as only a minimal number of national fishing vessels operate out of the national territory.

Air transport: Air transport emissions for resident airlines are calculated for AEA purposes using the energy-first approach and methodological guidance from the “EMEP/EEA Air Pollutant Emissions Inventory Guidebook 2016”. Specifically, the primary data used is the fuel consumption of resident commercial airlines. The methodology separates emissions into two groups: LTO (Landing/Take-off) emissions and cruise emissions and they are both recorded in NACE H51 for the purposes of the AEA. Due to the relatively small size of the Cyprus territory, cruise emissions are considered as out of the national territory. Therefore, the on the territory emissions are the LTO emissions to/from Cyprus’ airports and all the rest are bridged in the “residents abroad” cell.

Regarding the emissions reported to CLRTAP and to UNFCCC, the data found in the category “Domestic aviation”, is calculated by Eurocontrol and only include emissions of aircrafts flying under civil instrument flight rules (IFR), between Cyprus’ two main airports. These flights are then split into resident commercial flights which comprise the main part, training flights, and non-resident flights. Emissions from training flights are assigned to NACE P and emissions of non-resident flights are recorded in the “non-residents on the territory” item. By definition, the main part i.e., the resident commercial flights, is a subpart of the LTO emissions to/from Cyprus’ airports as calculated for AEA purposes. It is only a subpart because it is limited to the flights connecting the two main airports, whereas LTO emissions to/from Cyprus’ airports concerns flights connecting one of the main airports to any other airport. So, the numerical difference of these emissions concerns LTOs of resident flights connecting one of the main airports to non country airports. Below it is further examined whether this discrepancy is included in the national “territorial” total of the inventories or if it needs to be recorded in the bridging items.

In the case of the UNFCCC data, there is the CRF category “1 A 3 a i - International Bunkers” which contains a part of these resident emissions, but the category is not included in the national “territorial” total of the inventories and so the discrepancy is bridged in the “Other adjustments and statistical discrepancy” cell. In the case of the CLRTAP data, there is the NFR category “International aviation LTO”, which contains this discrepancy, but also includes non-resident emissions to/from Cyprus’ airports. This category is included in the national “territorial” total of the inventories and therefore, the non-resident part of it is bridged in the “non-residents on the territory” item.

Land transport: The inventory-first approach is used. Since Cyprus is an island-nation, the emissions of residents abroad are considered as negligible. The share of the emissions of non-residents on the territory is also rather small and is estimated mainly using tourist expenditure data.

Please see 18.5.4.

Not applicable.