Environment

As a cross sectional matter environmental data are provided by many areas of statistics. They refer both to physical and monetary terms as environment statistics mainly deals with social and economic activities and their environmental impacts and the state and changes of media (soil, water, air, etc) as well. Environment statistics is supplemented by data on activities of the government (e. g. compulsory use of catalytic converters in vehicles), enterprises, households as well as international organisations reacting on present or imminent impairments by environmental pollution.

Basically the tasks of environment statistics refer to

• Environmental transactions within the System of National Accounts (SNA) (Environmental Protection Expenditure, Environmental Taxes – “Eco-Taxes”, Environmental Goods and Services);
• Material Flow Accounts and Physical Accounts (Material flows, natural resources, nutrients, goods, water, emissions);
• Linkage of monetary data and economic indicators with respect to the environmental  burden of pollutant emissions for example in the framework of a NAMEA matrix (National Accounting Matrix including Environmental Accounts);
• Aspects of environmental quality (e. g. water, soil, eco systems, biodiversity, landscape, etc.) and
• Natural resource accounts (to a certain extent).

All these activities are subsumed under the notion Environmental Accounts.