Demo - Dominique - GOPA

Between 2000 and 2019, the environmental economy has outperformed the overall economy in terms of employment and value added. Even in 2009, when the financial crisis led to a 4 % contraction in GDP, gross value added from the production of environmental goods and services only saw a minor decrease of 1 %. In the aftermath of the crisis, the environmental economy showed a strong growth until 2011. Between 2012 and 2014, employment fell more than in the overall economy, but employment in the environmental sector bounced back quickly afterwards. Since 2014, growth in the environmental sector has picked up again and gross value added has been growing on average 4 % annually, thereby showing a higher growth rate than GDP, which was 2 % over that period. </sesection>

Employment by environmental domain

Employment in the environmental economy can be broken down by environmental protection and resource management activities, following the classification of environmental protection activities (CEPA) and the classification of resource management activities (CReMA); see section Data sources for more information). Figure 2 presents a breakdown into three environmental protection activities (waste management; wastewater management; other environmental protection activities) and two resource management activities (management of energy resources, combining energy efficiency and renewable energy production, and management of waters). Employment related to the management of energy resources grew by a factor of 3 since 2000. Employment in waste management also increased but about half as much as management of energy resources. Employment in waste water management declined. The number of full-time jobs in the other two domains remained more or less stable.

Job creation related to renewable energy and energy efficiency stems from the production of renewable energy itself as well as from the manufacturing of renewable energy and energy-efficient equipment, and the provision of pertinent installation, engineering and research services. Employment in this domain increased from 0.6 million full-time equivalents in 2000 to 1.7 million full-time equivalents in 2019. In other words: more than a million full-time equivalent jobs have been created in the EU between 2000 and 2019 through renewables and energy-efficiency measures. The second largest contribution to environmental employment came from waste management, with the number of jobs increasing from 0.9 million full-time equivalents in 2000 to 1.2 million full-time equivalents in 2019 (overall increase of 41 %). By contrast, employment related to wastewater management decreased in the same period by 27 % from 0.7 million to 0.5 million full-time equivalents. Whereas environmental protection accounted for more than three quarters (78 %) of the employment in the environmental economy in 2000, the share decreased to 59 % in 2019 following the creation of jobs related to renewables and energy-efficiency.

Figure 2: Employment in the environmental economy, by domain, EU, 2000–2019
(thousand full-time equivalents)
Source: Eurostat (env_ac_egss1)