Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
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 to 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.
3.2. Classification system
The scope of environmental protection is defined according to the Classification of Environmental Protection Ativities (CEPA), which distinguishes nine environmental domains. Data should be reported according to CEPA; however the mandatory part of the questionnaire restricts data collection to only some environmental domains (depending on the sector/variables).
3.3. Coverage - sector
Data are reported by institutional sector: general government, corporations, households and the rest of the world. NPISH (non-profit institutions serving households) are not separately identified and are included under general government. The corporations sector is divided between: "corporations as specialist and secondary producers of market EP services" and "corporations other, including corporations as producers of ancillary EP output"; productive activities of households are included under corporations as market producers.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
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.proposes to use the primary purpose criterion, recognising that many economic activities are undertaken for a variety of purposes, environmental and non-environmental ones.
3.5. Statistical unit
Data are provided for the general government, NPISH, corporations and households.
3.6. Statistical population
Producers and users of EP services, GG units and corporations with investments and current expenditure related to EP.
3.7. Reference area
The reference area of the statistics is Austria.
3.8. Coverage - Time
EPEA data are available for the period 1995 to 2013 following the SERIEE system and published as SERIEE Tables A to C. No Table C1 was calculated as there was not all information available in the form needed. Data as requested in the questionnaire is available as of 2014 but not fully for all years. Recalculations of the time series is not planned.
3.9. Base period
Not relevant.
Million units of national currency (Euro)
The reference period for EPEA data is the calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
EPEA accounts are compiled and reported in accordance with Regulation (EU) No. 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts (EEEA). They are calculated and disseminated on the basis of a contract of Statistics Austria with the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobilility, Innovation and Technology.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
EPEA is calculated only by Statistics Austria. Therefore data sharing is not relevant.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
The strict confidentiality provisions of the Austrian Federal Statistics Act 2000 regulate the handling of confidential data relating to individuals and organisations. Further, there is a decomunt describing confidentiality in publications and for dissemination of data (Geheimhaltung in Publikationen (only in German)).
A release calendar is available online on the webpage of Statistics Austria. EPEA data are published after finishing the Eurostat validation procedure.
Aggregated EPEA data for the general government, corporations and households are published on the webpage of Statistics Austria and in the database StatCube after adoption of the data by Eurostat. There are no specific measures to inform the users about the data release. Only the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobilility, Innovation and Technology is informed about the publication.
EPEA data have to be compatible with EGSS and COFOG/NA data. Further, data are validated by Eurostat.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Data from EPEA is used by research institutes, the BMF (Ministry of Finance) and the BMK (Ministry of Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology) as well.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
There are no such measures for EPEA.
12.3. Completeness
For some data models have to be used for their allocation to CEPA and CReMA but all necessary data are available.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Data are complete.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
We presume a high quality of our basis data from SBS and NA. But it is a fact, that we have to do some additional surveys to split the information from SBS for the relevant breakdown that is requested. The survey on manufacturing industry is compulsory as of 2022 so the accuracy.
Data as of 2020 were adapted to the new questionnaire.
13.2. Sampling error
Not relevant.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not relevant.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not relevant
13.3.1. Coverage error
Not relevant
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not relevant
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not relevant
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not relevant
13.3.3. Non response error
Not relevant.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not relevant.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not relevant.
13.3.4. Processing error
No errors.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not relevant.
14.1. Timeliness
i) only final data are calculated II) 24 month III) after finishing the validation precedure of Eurostat
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Only final data are calculated.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
24 months
14.2. Punctuality
No delay.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
20 December 2024.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Data are only calculated at national level.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not relevant.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Comparability over time is agreed as of 2018.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
2018 - 2022
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
We mainly use the same basic data and there is an exchange of information between EGSS and EPEA, e.g. EPEA uses production value of market and non-market activities as well as exports taken from EGSS; EGSS uses EPE data for general government and ancillary output from EPEA.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not relevant.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
As data from NA is not always available in the detailedness needed, data from business statistics and finance statistics is mainly used as data source. But, as these statistics are a basic data for NA too, data can be made coherent to NA my means of estimation factors. Therefore coherence is given. Further, COFOG is used for the government sector and SUT for imports and for VAT and other taxes less subsidies on EP services as well.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Data are consistent.
Reg. (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics stipulates cost effectiveness as statistical principle; however, there is no legal obligation to provide cost and burden information in quality reports. Such an obligation is also not covered by sectoral legislation. Due to the fact that consistent standards and definitions for cost reporting are currently not available and are yet to be developed by the RDG-expert group there is a high risk of misrepresentation and distortions when comparing costs of statistics production across countries. Statistics Austria will, hence, not provide any information until agreed harmonised reporting standards are in place.
17.1. Data revision - policy
The revision policy of Statistics Austria is decribed in the following document.
17.2. Data revision - practice
In EPEA revisions are only made in exceptional cases. This means that on the basis of our work program EPEA can only be carried out for the latest available year. No revisions are planned. However, due to the expansion of data to be reported, some revisions were made for the period 2018 to 2021 during the last data provision. This year some revisions were made for 2020 and 2021 in the course of the application of the new questionnaire. We are aware that the EPEA must be consistent with EGSS and NA. Changes in these statistics must also be adopted in the EPEA. We will work on a solution to be able to make these revisions and not just annual statistics.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
This data cannot be provided yet.
18.1. Source data
Main data sources are: for General Government and NPISH - Government Finance Statistics, COFOG, Reports (financial statements) from NPISH, Supply Use Table, EGSS for Corporations - EGSS, Structural Business Statistics and voluntary sample surveys (every fife years) in the manufacturing sector and on environmental expenditures of the service sector; Another source is EGSS and some information is taken from National Accounts (Supply/Use Tables)
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annually.
18.3. Data collection
We carry out two surveys to collect data on EPE of manufacturing industries and service industries. The one on EPE of manufacturing industries is added to the survey of SBS. Each year a sample of 3000 enterprises is asked for investments and current expenditure on EPE but the grade of detail is alternating. In one year all 9 CEPA classes are asked and in the other one CEPA 5-9 is aggregated. The one on EPE of service industries is also a sample survey with 3000 enterprises of NACE G to S with the same questions. This survey is carried out less frequently. The last one was in 2019, the next one will be in 2026. All surveys are web-based with hotlines for respondent questions. The first one is compulsory, the second one is voluntary. The samples are chosen by NACE and employment size class. All other data are from other statistics compiled by Statistics Austria, i.e. SBS, EGSS, COFOG etc.
18.4. Data validation
We do not check the quality of the other statistics compiled by Statistics Austria as these checks were already carried out. But as EPEA has to be compatible with EGSS and national accounts we check their compatibility. In the case of the voluntary survey in EPE of service industries we can only check the completeness of the data and their accuracy by comparing their expenditure with the size of the company. Errors are corrected by our team but due to the limited resources of the project it is not possible to contact the companies or further information.
18.5. Data compilation
There is no imputation in the survey on EPE of service industries. After receipt of the surveys, our methodology experts provide the weights for each NACE 2-digit depending on the size of the NACE, of the sample and the responding company. As the survey on EPE of manufacturing industries is carried out by the SBS team we are not involved in its data compilation process. But we are contacted for technical questions.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not relevant.
18.6. Adjustment
There are no time series adjustments. Only in exceptional cases data of previous years are revised.
Imports are weighted with factors to adjust them to purchasers' prices and SBS data are weighted to adjust them to national accounts data.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Not relevant
No comments.
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 to 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.
20 December 2024
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.proposes to use the primary purpose criterion, recognising that many economic activities are undertaken for a variety of purposes, environmental and non-environmental ones.
Data are provided for the general government, NPISH, corporations and households.
Producers and users of EP services, GG units and corporations with investments and current expenditure related to EP.
The reference area of the statistics is Austria.
The reference period for EPEA data is the calendar year.
We presume a high quality of our basis data from SBS and NA. But it is a fact, that we have to do some additional surveys to split the information from SBS for the relevant breakdown that is requested. The survey on manufacturing industry is compulsory as of 2022 so the accuracy.
Data as of 2020 were adapted to the new questionnaire.
Million units of national currency (Euro)
There is no imputation in the survey on EPE of service industries. After receipt of the surveys, our methodology experts provide the weights for each NACE 2-digit depending on the size of the NACE, of the sample and the responding company. As the survey on EPE of manufacturing industries is carried out by the SBS team we are not involved in its data compilation process. But we are contacted for technical questions.
Main data sources are: for General Government and NPISH - Government Finance Statistics, COFOG, Reports (financial statements) from NPISH, Supply Use Table, EGSS for Corporations - EGSS, Structural Business Statistics and voluntary sample surveys (every fife years) in the manufacturing sector and on environmental expenditures of the service sector; Another source is EGSS and some information is taken from National Accounts (Supply/Use Tables)
Yearly.
i) only final data are calculated II) 24 month III) after finishing the validation precedure of Eurostat
