Statistics Estonia

Economic and Environmental Statistics Department

  Tatari 51, 10134 Tallinn

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. Furthermore, AEA is one of several physical modules of Eurostat's programme on European environmental economic accounts.  It is covered by 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. 

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).

Data from 2008 to 2021

Data for other years are not available.

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 on European Environmental Economic Accounts (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2011:192:0001:0016:EN:PDF)

Not applicable at national level.

The rules of confidentiality followed in Estonia are that avalue of indicator is confidential if a) it makes up more than 90% of the total value, and b) if it comprises less than 3 units. Most cells that have been marked confidential are marked so because of these rules. After the primary confidentiality is assigned, it is necessary to find the secondary confidential cells.  In Statistics Estonia in order to find secondary confidential cells the programme Tau-Argus is used.

Data on air emissions are not confidential in Estonia.

Data on AEA for 2008-2021 will be published on Statistics Estonia website on 29th of September 2023.

The preannounced schedule of publication of data is announed at the beginning of year.

Link to the release calendar on Statistics Estonia website is:

 https://www.stat.ee/en/calendar

The users are informed about the data will being released via release calendar published on Statistics Estonia website at the beginning of the year. The statistical data are disseminated to all users at the same time via Statistics Estonia website.

Data are disseminated annually.

News releases are not made

Publications in which the data are made available to the public are not made so far.

Data on Air Emissions Accounts are published simultaneously on the webpage of Statistics Estonia:

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

No any other format was used for dissemination of data on Air Emissions Accounts in 2022.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

No other quality documents besides Quality Reports submitted to Eurostat together with AEA Questionnaire data have been compiled.

The control checks implemented into AEA Questionnaire 2023 were used for detecting potential errors or inconsistencies before the data were transmitted to Eurostat.

There are no big deficiencies in our own opinion in the methodology for the compilation of Air Emissions Account. However there are no data sources for calculating air emissions from road transport of non-resident enterprises on national territory. It was supposed, that non-residents enterprises were also covered under non-resident households emissions.

F-gases inventory is maintained by private company and reports of enterprises included to this are not available for Statistics Estonia, therefore breakdown of emissions of F-gases by economic activities have to be estimated using the source categories descriptions in Final Report of twinning project and also the National Inventory Report under theUNFCCC.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

All the cells in reporting tables for the years 2008-2021 were filled in.

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.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The average production time is 12 months.

Early estimates are not made.

AEA data are published on Statistics Estonia website at the same time the data were sent to Eurostat (T+21).

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Data are delivered in time - before 30th of September 2023

Data are delivered in time - before 30th of September 2023

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

Not applicable.

There are no breaks in time series

See Annex 2.

Data were available for years 2008 - 2021.

AEA data are coherent with National Accounts, Physical Energy Flow Accounts, Environmental Taxes Accounts  and energy statistics.

No diffrences occur in deffinitions, units or classifications used by other related statistical outputs.

Not applicable, because AEA data are annual.

No major changes in data sources or compilation methods occur in 2023. The same data sources and the same methodics were used to compile AEA during all time series.

1

Revision of Air Emissions Aaccounts data will be made the next year together with revisions made to Estonian Informative Inventory Report to the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) and National Inventory Report   under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol if needed. Emissions from road transport for years, for which SUT tables are not compiled yet, were revided after SUT tables will be available.

Data are revised in compliance with revisions made in National Emissions Inventories if needed.

Emissions from transport were revised according to data sources last available SUT data.

The  data and methodology of road  and maritime transport  emissions by Estonian residents abroad were revised due to the change of the data source.  New  methods based on official transport statistics were preferred and earlier data were revised. The revision of national accounts respective datasets has also been also initiated. 

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

Data are collected annually.

The Estonian Environmental Agency is responsible for compilation of Estonian Informative Inventory Report and performs the final data quality control and assurance procedure before submission.

Estonian Ministry of the Environment (MoE) is responsible for the Estonian greenhouse gas inventory.

The Estonian F-gases Inventories for 2008-2021 is prepared by Estonian Environmental Research Centre.

The Estonian Environmental Agency is responsible for compilation of Estonian Informative Inventory Report and performs the final data quality control and assurance procedure before submission.

The control checks implemented into AEA Questionnaire 2023 were used for detecting potential errors or inconsistencies before the data were transmitted to Eurostat.

Not applicable.

Estimations of air emissions from road transport of residents’ enterprises abroad are based on transport statistics (Road Traffic on National Territory for National and Foreign Vehicles by Type of Vehicle and Type of Road). Data about expenditures for transport made by residents during their holiday trips, visiting friends or relatives and other trips abroad (except trips organised by tourist agencies) were used as bases for estimations of air emissions from road transport of households.

Air emissions from shipping abroad were calculated in two parts. Expenditures for purchase of fuel made abroad from National Account data made up the first component. In addition emissions from international maritime navigation indicated in National Inventories as memo items were divided between residents and non-residents based on energy statistics data and resident part was considered as air emissions from shipping abroad. 

Estimations of air emissions from aviation of residents abroad were based on National Account data. Expenditures for purchase of fuel made abroad were used for estimations.

Adjustments due to residential principle for air emissions from road transport by non-residents were made based on tourism satellite account in cooperation with colleagues dealing with environmental taxes accounts and National Accounts. Non-residents’ fuel excise duty on motor fuels was estimated to be 5,4 % of households’ excise duty on motor fuels. Total household air emissions from road transport was divided in two parts: 94,6 % of these emissions were appointed to households and the rest 5,4 % of these emissions were appointed to non-residents in national territory and indicated in bridging items category “Road Transport”. Adjustments due to residential principle for air emissions from non-resident’s aviation were based on data of Estonian Environmental Agency indicating separately emissions from Landing and Take-Off cycle (LTO) of international and domestic flights and cruise of international and domestic flights separately for Estonian and foreign airplanes. Adjustments due to residential principle for air emissions from fuel used in shipping by non-residents were not made as these emissions are not included to National Inventories.

Adjustments due to residential principle for air emissions from rail transport were not made as locomotives do not cross the state boarders and foreign locomotives do not enter the Estonian territory also.

Adjustments was not performed.

Not applicable.

Eurostat has previously drawn attention to inconsistency between AEA data and PEFA data for aviation. The different data sources were used for compilation of PEFA and AEA for aviation activity (NACE 51). For PEFA the OECD data were used, as this was strongly suggested by Eurostat for PEFA compilers. Data collected by Estonian Environment Agency was used for compilation of AEA. Estonian Environment Agency’s data were chosen as these data were used also for compilation of emission inventories. Estonian Environment Agency surveyed all airports and asked for quantity of aircraft fuels delivered separately to Estonian and foreign aircrafts by fuel types, aircraft types and engine types. We are aware of discrepancies between OECD data and Estonian Environmental Agency data (OECD data are based on data of International Air Transport Association, but some Estonian small air companies are not members of this organization; from other side OECD database includes data of activities of air companies active exclusively outside Estonian territory and are not included to Estonian Environmental Agency data). We don’t have a good solution how to deal with these differences yet. At the same time, aviation is a marginal activity in Estonian economy and absolute values of fuel consumption and emissions from aviation are small also.