Environmental protection expenditure 2021
Increased expenditure on environmental protection 2021
Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2022-10-13 8.00
Swedish industry’s total environmental protection expenditure amounted to SEK 23 billion in 2021, which is 11 percent more than in 2020. This change is due to increases in current environmental protection expenditure and investments.
Environmental protection investments accounted for 43 percent of total environmental protection expenditure, while current expenditures accounted for 57 percent. In 2021, current expenditures amounted to SEK 13.4 billion, while investments amounted to SEK 9.9 billion. Current expenditures on environmental protection were 13 percent higher than in 2020, while environmental protection investments were 8 percent higher.
In 2021, the largest total expenditure on environmental protection, SEK 7.2 billion, was noted in the electricity, gas and heating industry (NACE 35). This corresponds to 31 percent of total environmental protection expenditure. The second largest contribution came from the manufacture of paper and paper products industry (NACE 17), which accounted for 15 percent of total environmental protection expenditure.
Increased investments in four environmental domains
In 2021, the environmental protection investments increased in all environmental domains except in Wastewater and Waste management. The investments in the Air domain were the largest in absolute terms and these investments accounted for half of the total environmental protection investments of the industry in 2021. This was a 70 percent increase compared to 2020. The largest increase occurred in the Land domain with an annual increase of 83 percent.
Investments in the environmental domain Other; which includes measures to decrease noise, accounted for 20 percent of the total environmental protection investments in 2021. This is an annual increase of 80 percent. Biodiversity and landscapes accounted for 0,5 percent of total environmental protection investments. These investments increased by 68 percent in 2021 compared to 2020.
Investments in the environmental domain Water represented 16 percent of total investments 2021 and compared to 2020 they increased by 20 percent. Investments in Waste went back to the normal levels of the previous years. The significant difference in investments between 2020 and 2021 can be attributed to exceptionally high investments in waste occurred in 2020.
*The biodiversity, land, and “other” domains were previously included in the “other” domain. From 2016 onwards, this domain has been divided into three separate domains.
Current environmental expenditures focused on waste management and wastewater management
The largest current environmental expenditures in 2021 referred to wastewater management and waste management. Expenditures on waste management and wastewater management accounted for 35 percent and 29 percent, respectively, of total current environmental expenditures in 2021. Current environmental expenditures in both domains remained roughly the same as in 2020, while current expenditures on Air and Biodiversity increased by more than 40 precent.
*The biodiversity, land and “other” domains were previously included in the “other” domain. From 2016 onwards, this domain has been divided into three separate domains.
Total environmental protection expenditure by NACE industry
In 2021, the electricity, gas and heating industry (NACE 35) and the manufacture of paper and paper products industry (NACE 17) accounted for the largest total environmental protection expenditure in all industrial branches.
In the electricity, gas and heating industry, total expenditures amounted to SEK 7.2 billion. The largest environment protection investments and current expenditures in this industry allocated to the domain Waste management. In the manufacture of paper and paper products industry, total expenditures amounted to SEK 3.5 billion. This industry also had the largest environmental protection investments in Air and the largest current expenditures in Wastewater management.
The manufacture of food, beverages and tobacco industries (NACE 10-12) also had considerably high total expenditures on environmental protection, accounting for higher than SEK 2 billion, mainly for Wastewater management. Total expenditures on environmental protection were less than SEK 2 billion for the rest of industries in 2021.
Revisions
Investments in environmental protection have been revised for the years 2016-2020; this has resulted in a small number of moves of investments between environmental domains.
Definitions and explanations
Environmental protection refers to activities that aim to prevent, reduce or eliminate pollution or other deterioration of the environment. Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, has produced common international definitions for environmental protection and how expenditures are to be calculated.
Investments in environmental protection are broken down into investments for emissions treatment that do not affect the process (such as filters and separate purification plants), and investments for the prevention of emissions involving investments in new or changed production processes. Current expenditure consists of expenditure for staff, energy, materials, and supplies, such as for the operation and supervision of purification plants, for environmental administration tasks, environmental management and certification, as well as waste management. Payments to others who carry out these measures are also included.
Publication
Tables are available at http://www.scb.se/mi1302
Next publishing will be
Environmental protection expenditure 2022 will be published in October 2023.
Feel free to use the facts from this statistical news but remember to state Source: Statistics Sweden.