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Environmental protection expenditure accounts: documentation of statistics

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25.10.2023 valid documentation

Basic data of the statistics

Data description

The statistics on environmental protection expenditure accounts describe the expenditure arising from environmental protection to manufacturing industries, households, non-profit institutions, and central and local government. The statistics are intended for social decision-making, for enterprises and organisations representing their interests, and for research. With these statistics, comparisons can be made between spending arising from environmental protection in different industries. The statistics are part of the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA), an international framework which monitors the interaction between the environment and the economy. EU Regulation on European environmental economic accounts (EU) No 691/2011, amended by Regulation (EU) No 538/2014, and its implementing regulation (EU) No 2174/2015 obligate EU Member States to compile statistics on the environmental goods and services sector as of 2014. The objective of environmental accounts is to provide a statistical description of the interaction between the environment and the economy which for the most part complies with the basic framework and classifications of national accounts.

Statistical population

The statistics are based on register data. The statistical population consists of units engaged in economic activity in Finland. The units are aggregated so that they can no longer be separated in the statistics.

Statistical unit

The statistical unit comprises the following sectors of the national economy: S13 General government, S14 Households, S15 Non-profit institutions serving households, and S11 Non-financial corporations in industries B, C, D and E.

Unit of measure

The expenditure, investments and transfers described in the statistics are given in millions of euros.

Reference period

The reference period of the statistics is a calendar year.

Reference area

The statistics cover the whole of Finland as a single area. The statistics do not include regional classifications.

Sector coverage

The statistics cover all manufacturing industries (mining and quarrying, manufacturing and energy services), water treatment and supply, wastewater and waste management, households, and central and local government. The industrial classification is in accordance with Statistics Finland’s classification (TOL 2008), which is based on EU standards (Standard Industrial Classification TOL 2008, Statistics Finland, Handbooks 4, Helsinki 2008).
The statistics on environmental protection expenditure accounts comprise:

investments in environmental protection
expenditure arising from the operations and maintenance of environmental protection equipment

Time coverage

The statistics cover the period 2014 to 2021.

Frequency of dissemination

The statistics are disseminated annually.

Concepts

CEPA-classification

The classification of environmental protection activities. For example waste water management, waste management, air protection, nature conservation, and administration and other environmental protection.

Environment

The concept of environment refers to the physical, social and cultural factors that are present in the natural or built environment and with which humans have an interactive relationship. The environment is perceived above all as the human living environment on the state and quality of which human activity has a positive or negative impact.

Environmental protection

Measures taken by an enterprise whose primary aim is to collect, process, reduce, prevent or eliminate the emissions, waste or other environmental hazards caused by its activity.

Environmental protection expenditure

Environmental protection expenditure refers to the total of investments and operating costs arising from environmental protection measures.

Environmental protection investments

Environmental protection investments refer to the capital an enterprise spends on the environmental protection measures whose primary aim is to collect, process, reduce, prevent or eliminate the emissions, waste or other environmental hazard caused by its activities.

Final consumption of environmental protection services

According to ESA 2010 (§ 3.94) final consumption expenditure (P.3) consists of expenditure incurred by resident institutional units on goods or services that are used for the direct satisfaction of individual needs or wants or the collective needs of members of the community.

Final consumption of EP services by households (ESA 2010, § 3.95) consists of expenditure incurred by households on the purchases of EP services. This is consumption to satisfy their individual needs. It includes households’ “payments for non-market output” i.e. their payments of various fees and charges that represent less than 50% of the costs of production of the non-market EP services. The final consumption expenditure of households is recorded at purchaser's prices.

In national accounts, the consumption of products for the benefit of the community at large e.g., public administration, justice services, defence services, etc. is conventionally attributed to the general government. This is the final consumption by the general government. Those services are typically produced by the government itself, so they can be identified and measured from the production side.

Correspondingly, final consumption expenditure of EP services by general government and NPISH (ESA 2010, §§ 3.97, 3.98 and 3.117) is equal to the value of their non-market output less payments for non-market output.

Full-time producers of environmental protection services

Industrial activities 37 (Sewerage), 38 (Waste collection, treatment and disposal activities; materials recovery) and 39 (Remediation activities and other waste management services) can be called full-time producers of environmental protection services, because the size of environmental protection expenditure in these activities is significant.

Intermediate consumption of environmental protection expenditure

In connection with environmental protection expenditure, intermediate consumption describes self-used environmental production (=environmental protection expenditure) generated during production from auxiliary activities, which are needed for primary or secondary production.
For example, self-used environmental production includes use of energy and materials, wages and salaries, service operations, etc.

NEEP = National expenditure on environmental protection

An approximation of national expenditure on environmental protection can be compiled from the sum of the following components:
• total output (environmental protection market output, environmental protection non-market output and environmental protection ancillary output),
• plus gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) and net acquisition of non-financial, non-produced assets for environmental protection,
• minus intermediate consumption of environmental protection services by corporations as specialist producers.

This is an indirect, supply-side estimate of expenditure. The imports, exports and international transfers of environmental protection services, as well as the VAT and other taxes less subsidies on environmental protection services, are not (yet) estimated due to incomplete data sources. It is assumed that these components have a small impact on the total national expenditure of the EU-28 as a whole. Work is ongoing to improve the estimates of national expenditure on environmental protection.

Output of environmental protection services

Output (market, non-market, ancillary) of environmental protection services is defined in EPEA as the sum of environmental protection market output, environmental protection non-market output and environmental protection ancillary output. Market output is the output disposed of on the market or intended to be disposed of on the market. Non-market output is provided to other units for free, or at prices that are not economically significant. Ancillary output is intended for use for production activities within an enterprise. Environmental protection ancillary output called 'legally acceptable valuation' is measured as the sum of the components 'compensation of employees' and 'intermediate consumption' for the environmental protection ancillary activity.

System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA)

The System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) is a systematic description of the relationship between the environment and the economy. The accounts comprise of accounts and balances that describe the use volumes of natural resources, the loading caused by the use of natural resources, and the economy and business activity of environmental protection. The statistics of the System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting are compiled in the framework of national accounts in compliance with their key characteristics, such as the industrial classification and the classification of sectors and the domicile principle of economic units.

Classifications

Classification of environmental goods and services (CEPA and CREMA) 2014

Accuracy, reliability and timeliness

Overall accuracy

As the statistics are sample-based, the results always involve statistical uncertainties. However, with the sample design used, Statistics Finland aims to ensure that the environment expenditure of large industrial enterprises, which are the highest, can be entered in the statistics in a comprehensive and reliable manner. The questionnaire is sent to approximately 2,000 establishments and over the past few years, the response rate has been between 70 and 80 per cent. The responses are inspected at Statistics Finland to minimise measurement errors. Non-response is taken into account when the data are weighted to apply to all industrial activities in Finland.

In other respects, the statistics comprise statistics derived from other sources. Therefore, the quality of the source statistics is crucial for the reliability of the statistics.

Timeliness

The statistics on environmental protection expenditure accounts are produced each year 22 months after the end of the statistical year.

Punctuality

The statistics are published in accordance with the release calendar.

Comparability

Comparability - geographical

Due to compliance with uniform statistical principles prepared by Eurostat, the statistics are comparable with statistics of other EU Member States. Comparability between statistics compiled by OECD member countries has also improved in recent years.

Comparability - over time

The statistics are comparable from 2014 onwards. The statistics on environmental protection expenditure by industries and the public sector for the period 1992 to 2013 are not comparable with the current environmental protection expenditure statistics.

Coherence - cross domain

Unlike in the national accounts, research and development expenditure are not capitalised as part of capital gross formation in environmental protection expenditure. The difference amounts to between 20–40 million euros. In other respects, the statistics have been compiled in accordance with the national accounts and they correspond to the frame, methods and definitions used in the national accounts.

Coherence -national accounts

The statistics are in compliance with the national accounts as they both use identical classification and data.

Source data and data collections

Source data

A questionnaire sent directly to approximately 2,000 establishments. Final central government accounts, local government operational and financial statistics, and separate reports.

Data collection

A questionnaire sent directly to approximately 2000 establishments. Final central government accounts, local government operational and financial statistics, and separate reports.

Frequency of data collection

The data are collected each year.

Methods

Data compilation

Using weighting, responses to the survey are weighted to correspond to the industry as a whole.

Data validation

The received data are compared to previous data with the same content and any data related to the same topic.

Principles and outlines

Contact organisation

Statistics Finland

Contact organisation unit

Economic Statistics

Legal acts and other agreements

The compilation of statistics is guided by the Statistics Act. The Statistics Act contains provisions on collection of data, processing of data and the obligation to provide data. Besides the Statistics Act, the Data Protection Act and the Act on the Openness of Government Activities are applied to processing of data when producing statistics.

Statistics Finland compiles statistics in line with the EU’s regulations applicable to statistics, which steer the statistical agencies of all EU Member States.

Further information: Statistical legislation

Confidentiality - policy

The data protection of data collected for statistical purposes is guaranteed in accordance with the requirements of the Statistics Act (280/2004), the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999), the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act (1050/2018). The data materials are protected at all stages of processing with the necessary physical and technical solutions. Statistics Finland has compiled detailed directions and instructions for confidential processing of the data. Employees have access only to the data essential for their duties. The premises where unit-level data are processed are not accessible to outsiders. Members of the personnel have signed a pledge of secrecy upon entering the service. Violation of data protection is punishable.

Further information: Data protection | Statistics Finland (stat.fi)

Confidentiality - data treatment

According to the Statistics Act (280/2004), the data of the statistics are in the public domain.
The tables in the statistics are produced by using/editing a table’s classification on a level high or general enough to prevent the emergence of small cell frequencies.

The Statistics Act (280/2004) defines the data on the number of enterprises as being in the public domain, which is why even small cell frequencies do not need to be protected. In quantity tables, cells containing only a small number of observations (threshold value) or dominated by one or two units (dominance rule) are protected by suppressing the value of the cell to prevent the data of an individual enterprise being revealed. In addition, other cells have been suppressed to prevent the calculation of the primarily suppressing cell values with the aid of marginal sums. The suppressed cells in released tables are marked by single quotation marks ’..’. Further information on suppression can be found in the Handbook on Statistical Disclosure Control (2010).

The data of the statistics are not released in an identifiable format outside Statistics Finland. The use of the data for scientific research and statistical surveys is possible only on the basis of a separate licensing decision and in an unidentifiable format. Further information about licences.

Release policy

Statistics Finland publishes new statistical data at 8 am on weekdays in its web service. The release times of statistics are given in advance in the release calendar available in the web service. The data are public after they have been updated in the web service.

Further information: Publication principles for statistics at Statistics Finland

Data sharing

The statistics on environmental protection expenditure accounts are produced each year approximately 22 months after the end of the statistical year. Online address of the release calendar: https://www.stat.fi/ajk/julkistamiskalenteri/index_en.html#?langs=fi

Accessibility and clarity

Statistical data are published as database tables in the StatFin database. The database is the primary publishing site of data, and new data are updated first there. When releasing statistical data, existing database tables can be updated with new data or completely new database tables can be published.

In addition to statistical data published in the StatFin database, a release on the key data is usually published in the web service. If the release contains data concerning several reference periods (e.g. monthly and annual data), a review bringing together these data is published in the web service. Database tables updated at the time of publication are listed both in the release and in the review. In some cases, statistical data can also be published as mere database releases in the StatFin database. No release or review is published in connection with these database releases.

Releases and database tables are published in three languages, in Finnish, Swedish and English. The language versions of releases may have more limited content than in Finnish.

Information about changes in the publication schedules of releases and database tables and about corrections are given as change releases in the web service.

https://www.stat.fi/til/ympsm/index_en.html

Release of topical news (such as news contents) is decided on a case-by-case basis. The channels for the news are

www.stat.fi

www.facebook.com/Tilastotohtori

https://twitter.com/StatsFinland

Data revision - policy

Revisions – i.e. improvements in the accuracy of statistical data already published – are a normal feature of statistical production and result in improved quality of statistics. The principle is that statistical data are based on the best available data and information concerning the statistical phenomenon. On the other hand, the revisions are communicated as transparently as possible in advance. Advance communication ensures that the users can prepare for the data revisions.

The reason why data in statistical releases become revised is often caused by the data becoming supplemented. Then the new, revised statistical figure is based on a wider information basis and describes the phenomenon more accurately than before.

Revisions of statistical data may also be caused by the calculation method used, such as annual benchmarking or updating of weight structures. Changes of base years and used classifications may also cause revisions to data.

Quality assessment

The OSF quality criteria and recommendation on quality description

Quality assurance

Quality management requires comprehensive guidance of activities. The quality management framework of the field of statistics is the European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP). The quality criteria of Official Statistics of Finland are compatible with the European Statistics Code of Practice.

Further information: Quality management | Statistics Finland (stat.fi)

User access

Data are released to all users at the same time. Statistical data may only be handled at Statistics Finland and information on them may be given before release only by persons involved in the production of the statistics concerned or who need the data of the statistics concerned in their own work before the data are published.

Further information: Publication principles for statistics

Unless otherwise separately stated in connection with the product, data or service concerned, Statistics Finland is the producer of the data and the owner of the copyright. The terms of use for statistical data.