Presentation at informal meeting of Environment Ministers
16 July 2014, Milano
Eurostat's work on resource
productivity indicators and green jobs
Walter J. Radermacher
Chief Statistician of the European Union
Some key questions related to the environment
1) Which cocktail of driving forces is causing pressures on the
environment (Population x GDP/capita x Pressures/GDP; the long
term interaction between these factors)?
2) How is efficiency (Pressures/GDP) developing (single factor and
multi factor productivity, taxation of factors, trading schemes)?
3) How is the status of our environment in its main natural
components (resilience, quantitative depletion, qualitative
degradation, tipping points of systems)?
4) How far are political and economic responses preventing or treating
environmental damages (circular economy, green goods and jobs,
environmental expenditure)?
5) How are our activities influencing the environment elsewhere or in
the future (footprint of production and consumption, international
trade)?
2
W. J. Radermacher
Eurostat
Living well within the limits of our planet
3
W. J. Radermacher
Eurostat
Smarter, greener, more inclusive?
Indicators to support the Europe 2020 strategy
•
•
•
5 main themes
8 headline indicators
80+ descriptive indicators
4
W. J. Radermacher
Eurostat
Main Europe 2020 indicators
2005 –> now in 10 seconds
2005
Employment rate
age group 20-64
People at risk of poverty or
social exclusion
Gross domestic
expenditure on R&D
Tertiary educational
attainment
Greenhouse gas
emissions
Share of renewable energy
in gross final energy
consumption
Early leavers from education
and training
W. J. Radermacher
Primary energy
consumption
5
Eurostat
Main Europe 2020 indicators
2005 –> now in 10 seconds
2006
Employment rate
age group 20-64
People at risk of poverty or
social exclusion
Gross domestic
expenditure on R&D
Tertiary educational
attainment
Greenhouse gas
emissions
Share of renewable energy
in gross final energy
consumption
Early leavers from education
and training
W. J. Radermacher
Primary energy
consumption
6
Eurostat
Main Europe 2020 indicators
2005 –> now in 10 seconds
2007
Employment rate
age group 20-64
People at risk of poverty or
social exclusion
Gross domestic
expenditure on R&D
Tertiary educational
attainment
Greenhouse gas
emissions
Share of renewable energy
in gross final energy
consumption
Early leavers from education
and training
W. J. Radermacher
Primary energy
consumption
7
Eurostat
Main Europe 2020 indicators
2005 –> now in 10 seconds
2008
Employment rate
age group 20-64
People at risk of poverty or
social exclusion
Gross domestic
expenditure on R&D
Tertiary educational
attainment
Greenhouse gas
emissions
Share of renewable energy
in gross final energy
consumption
Early leavers from education
and training
W. J. Radermacher
Primary energy
consumption
8
Eurostat
Main Europe 2020 indicators
2005 –> now in 10 seconds
2009
Employment rate
age group 20-64
People at risk of poverty or
social exclusion
Gross domestic
expenditure on R&D
Tertiary educational
attainment
Greenhouse gas
emissions
Share of renewable energy
in gross final energy
consumption
Early leavers from education
and training
W. J. Radermacher
Primary energy
consumption
9
Eurostat
Main Europe 2020 indicators
2005 –> now in 10 seconds
2010
Employment rate
age group 20-64
People at risk of poverty or
social exclusion
Gross domestic
expenditure on R&D
Tertiary educational
attainment
Greenhouse gas
emissions
Share of renewable energy
in gross final energy
consumption
Early leavers from education
and training
W. J. Radermacher
Primary energy
consumption
10
Eurostat
Main Europe 2020 indicators
2005 –> now in 10 seconds
2011
Employment rate
age group 20-64
People at risk of poverty or
social exclusion
Gross domestic
expenditure on R&D
Tertiary educational
attainment
Greenhouse gas
emissions
Share of renewable energy
in gross final energy
consumption
Early leavers from education
and training
W. J. Radermacher
Primary energy
consumption
11
Eurostat
Main Europe 2020 indicators
2005 –> now in 10 seconds
2012
Employment rate
age group 20-64
People at risk of poverty or
social exclusion
Gross domestic
expenditure on R&D
Tertiary educational
attainment
Greenhouse gas
emissions
Share of renewable energy
in gross final energy
consumption
Early leavers from education
and training
W. J. Radermacher
Primary energy
consumption
12
Eurostat
Main Europe 2020 indicators
2005 –> now in 10 seconds
Latest
Employment rate
age group 20-64
People at risk of poverty or
social exclusion
Gross domestic
expenditure on R&D
Tertiary educational
attainment
Greenhouse gas
emissions
Share of renewable energy
in gross final energy
consumption
Early leavers from education
and training
W. J. Radermacher
Primary energy
consumption
13
Eurostat
Resource efficiency scoreboard on Eurostat's website
W. J. Radermacher
14
Eurostat
Resource efficiency scoreboard on Eurostat's website
A three-tier system based on available statistics from Eurostat, the
EEA, the JRC and other international recognised sources for the Europe
2020 Flagship initiative "A resource-efficient Europe" and its roadmap.
Lead indicator (Resource productivity = GDP/DMC) (from Eurostat's
environmental accounts – Regulation (EU) No 691/2011)
Dashboard indicators (land, water, carbon)
Sets of thematic indicators
 'Transforming the economy' (waste treatment and recycling, ecoinnovation, getting prices right – environmental taxes)
 'Nature and ecosystems' (biodiversity, air, land, marine resources)
 'Key areas' (food, buildings, mobility)
Eurostat press release 186/2013 of 6 Dec. 2013: Thirty indicators
to measure resource efficiency in the EU
W. J. Radermacher
15
Eurostat
Resource productivity (GDP/DMC) latest data
(from Eurostat's environmental accounts Regulation (EU) No 691/2011)
W. J. Radermacher
16
Eurostat
DMC - shortcomings
• Domestic Material Consumption (DMC) measures the materials
that actually circulate in the economy of a country and that
remain in the country as stocks (e.g. in buildings) or end up as
waste/emissions.
• "Asymmetry" from a resource perspective: domestic extraction
is raw materials (e.g. gross ore, crude coal etc.) but imports &
exports are often goods (e.g. cars, machinery, mobile phones,
etc.) -> de-manufacturing can drive down DMC
• Solution: convert imports and exports into their Raw Material
Equivalents (RME) taking into account the entire production
chain from the cradle to the border
• This gives a "footprint-type" indicator = Raw Material
Consumption (RMC)
17
W. J. Radermacher
Eurostat
RMC – difficulties
• RMC cannot be "observed" => various modelling approaches
convert trade data into raw material equivalents.
• Eurostat uses an extended hybrid single region input-output
model to estimate EU totals for RMC. Other models exist. For
individual Member States calculations may be less reliable.
Comparing some EU totals for RMC:
• Eurostat's RMC model:
17,5 t/cap
Multiregional global input-output models:
• WIOD (7th Framework Programme):
20.6 t/cap
• EXIOBASE (6th Framework Programme):
21.2 t/cap
• EORA (University of Sidney):
23.4 t/cap
18
W. J. Radermacher
Eurostat
DMC and RMC - does it make a difference?
RMC a bit higher for most countries (lower for Germany)
but trends not very different
*…RMC for individual countries not available for all years, ratios partly interpolated
19
W. J. Radermacher
Eurostat
Breakdown by material - DMC
construction is main
driver of RMC
20
W. J. Radermacher
Eurostat
Breakdown by material - RMC
21
W. J. Radermacher
Eurostat
Policy cycle
• Problem analysis
• Identifying appropriate measures
• Target setting
• Implementation of measures
• Monitoring
• Correction of targets/measures
DMC as lead
indicator at EU
and Member
State level has
legal base, RMC
estimated at EU
level and by few
MS currently
22
W. J. Radermacher
Eurostat
Policy cycle
• Problem analysis
full range of accounts:
• Identifying appropriate measures
e.g. RMC calculations
e.g. material breakdown
e.g. industry breakdown
(multifactor productivity)
e.g. decomposition analyses
(driving forces)
e.g. linking to IO models
e.g. footprint type analyses
• Target setting
• Implementation of measures
• Monitoring
• Correction of targets/measures
…not necessarily only
official statistics; close
cooperation with research
23
W. J. Radermacher
Eurostat
Example: industry profiles (shares of different
industries for main characteristics, EU 27, 2010)
W. J. Radermacher
Eurostat
24
Example: Driving forces of CO2 emissions in NL
25
W. J. Radermacher
Eurostat
Example: Environmental employment in EU-28
Source: Eurostat (env_ac_egss1)
W. J. Radermacher
26
Eurostat
Thank you for your attention!
 Walter.Radermacher@ec.europa.eu
 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat
W. J. Radermacher
27
Eurostat