A plant growing next to a cracked, dry soil.

In 2023, private investment in climate change mitigation measures within the EU amounted to €95.3 billion, which corresponds to 0.55% of the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP).

From 2005 to 2016, investment remained relatively stable, hovering around 0.5% of GDP. Subsequently, a notable upward trend followed, peaking at 0.64% in 2021. In 2022 and 2023, investment in climate change mitigation slightly declined to 0.56% and 0.55% of GDP, respectively.

Private investment in climate change mitigation measures in the EU, 2005-2023, % of GDP. Chart. See link to full dataset below.

Source dataset: env_ac_ccminv

Private investment highest in Lithuania and Denmark

In 2023, Lithuania and Denmark reported the highest shares of private investment in climate change mitigation, with 1.5% of GDP. Latvia and Sweden followed with 1.2% of GDP. 

In all remaining EU countries, investment in climate change mitigation was below 1% of GDP in 2023. Cyprus and Ireland recorded the lowest shares of investment, with less than 0.1% of GDP.

Source dataset: env_ac_ccminv

For more information

Methodological notes

  • The data presented refers to private investments, i.e. investments by businesses. The estimates are based on a methodology developed by Eurostat for defining private investments in climate change mitigation, consisting of the following steps: 1) Define what climate change mitigation is. 2) Delineate economic activities relating to climate change mitigation.
  • As regards the first point, the climate change mitigation sector is a sub-sector of the whole economy that substantially reduces greenhouse gas emissions by source or from the atmosphere. It reflects the internationally accepted definition by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change  (UNFCCC) which is based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The estimation method makes assumptions about the share of investment in climate change mitigation that should be applied to each economic activity.
  • As regards the second point, the investments are defined using the structural business statistics concept of ‘investment in tangible goods’. This is more restrictive than the concept of ‘gross fixed capital formation’, which reflects investments in both tangible and intangible goods. Please note that in most countries, the estimates do not cover agriculture, forestry and fishing (statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community - NACE A) and data for this economic activity are therefore not available for the EU aggregate.

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