Environmental protection expenditure 2022. Corrected 2024-01-25
Reduced environmental protection investments 2022
Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2024-01-25 8.00
Swedish industry’s investments in environmental protection reduce by 13 percent in 2022. At the same time the current expenditures increase by 12 percent which implies that the total expenditures on environmental protection in 2022 remains on a similar level to 2021.
- The total environmental protection expenditures for 2022 show a significant increase in current expenditures compared to previous years, which is the result of large investments in all environmental protection areas in the recent years, says Dimitra Kopidou, analyst at Statistics Sweden's environmental accounts.
Swedish industry’s total environmental protection expenditures amount to 23 billion SEK in 2022. This corresponds to an increase of 1 percent compared to 2021. Environmental protection investments account for 37 percent of total environmental protection expenditure, while current expenditures account for 63 percent. In 2022, investments amount to 8.65 billion SEK, which is a decrease of 13 percent compared to 2021. Current expenditures increase by 12 percent and thus, they amount to 14.6 billion SEK.
Increased investments in three environmental domains
In 2022, the environmental protection investments increase in three of the six environmental domains. The investments in the environmental domain water, which stands for wastewater management, increase by 82 percent compared to 2021 and they account for 34 percent of total environmental protection investments from the Swedish industry in 2022. Investments in the environmental domains waste, land and groundwater increase this year as well, but not as much as the investments in the domain water. They increase by 35 and 7 percent, respectively.
The investments in the environmental domain air continue to be the largest in absolute terms, despite a decrease of 29 percent compared to 2021. A significant decrease from 2021 to 2022 appears in other environmental protection investments which are included under the environmental domain other*.
*The environmental domains biodiversity, land & groundwater, and other were previously reported together as one domain named other. From 2016 onwards, this environmental domain has been divided into three separate ones.
Current expenditures on environmental protection focused on waste management and wastewater management
The largest current expenditures in 2022 are done for waste management and wastewater management. Expenditures on waste management and wastewater management account for 36 percent and 31 percent, respectively, of total current expenditure for environmental protection in 2022. The highest increase in current environmental expenditure in 2022 compared to 2021 appears in the environmental domains land and groundwater, and water. The costs in these two domains increase by 35 and 26 percent, respectively.
*The environmental domains biodiversity, land & groundwater, and other were previously reported together as one domain named other. From 2016 onwards, this environmental domain has been divided into three separate ones.
Total environmental protection expenditure by NACE industry
Five of the 18 industrial branches included in the survey account for more than 50 percent of total environmental protection expenditures. The electricity, gas and heating industry (NACE D35) has the highest total environmental protection expenditure, which accounts for 26 percent of total environmental protection expenditures in the Swedish industry. The second largest contribution comes from the manufacture of basic metals and of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment (NACE C24-25), which account for 9 percent of total environmental protection expenditures in the Swedish industry.
In the electricity, gas and heating industry, total environmental expenditures amount to 5.9 billion SEK, of which 3.8 billion SEK are for current expenditures. In the manufacture of basic metals and of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment, total environmental expenditures amount to 2 billion SEK. The largest environmental protection investments of these industrial branches are in the environmental domains air and water.
Revisions
Current expenditures on environmental protection have been revised for the year 2021 in the manufacture of paper and paper products industry (NACE C17). Data for year 2022 has been revised where a few environmental protection investments has changed its environmental domain. More information can be found in the quality report at http://www.scb.se/mi1302 (available only in Swedish).
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 on environmental protection includes labour costs, expenditure for 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 payments for collection and treatment of waste and wastewater. Costs for purchasing services carried out by others are also included.
Next publishing will be
Environmental protection expenditure 2023 will be published in October 2024.
Feel free to use the facts from this statistical news but remember to state Source: Statistics Sweden.