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Environmental information systems
Increasing environment- and climate-related expenditure can help meet the objectives of the European Green Deal. Environmental Protection Expenditure Accounts (EPEA) measure the economic resources used for prevention, reduction, and elimination of pollution and any other degradation of the environment. Expenditure increased between 2018 and 2024 from 352 billion to 367 billion euros in the European Union. This represents a modest real term increase of 4.2% after inflation adjustments. EPE as a share of GDP declined to 2.0% in 2024, the lowest level recorded during the assessed period.
Figure 1. Environmental protection expenditure by institutional sector in the period 2018-2023, EU-27
Building on the European Green Deal policy objectives, the 8th Environment Action Programme (8th EAP) aims to accelerate the green transition. Increasing environmental protection expenditure (EPE) in EU Member States and green expenditure directly related to environmental protection can help achieve this. For example, expenditure on renewables, energy and resource efficiency, and the circular economy transition.
EPE covers the protection of ambient air, soil and water; wastewater and waste management; noise abatement; biodiversity protection; protection against radiation; and environmental research and development (R&D). EPE only partly captures expenditure related to climateand circular economy, and includes both operating expenditure and investments. In real terms, growing by 4.2% during 2018-2024 and reaching an estimated EUR 367 billion in 2025 prices by 2024.
Most EPE is spent by corporations and increased in real terms by 8.4% from 2018 to 2024. Over the same period, the EPE of general governments and non-profit institutions increased by 8.6%. EPE by households decreased by 12%. Most EPE was spent on waste management and wastewater treatment activities during this period. Since 2018, the share of overall EPE in gross domestic product (GDP) has remained relatively stable, at around 2%, yet declined from 2.1% (2022) to 2.0% (2023 and 2024), the lowest level recorded during the assessed period.
To achieve EU’s objectives on environmental protection by 2030, the additional investment needed for the period 2021-2030 is estimated at EUR 77 billion per year. The slow progress in increasing EPE implies that the EU is likely off track to address this funding gap by 2030.
Figure 2. Expenditure on environmental protection by EU Member State, 2018 and 2022, (% of GDP)
EPE remained stable at 2.1% of GDP between 2018 and 2022 at the EU level. EPE to GDP ratios varied across the Member States. In Austria, Belgium and Czechia, EPE accounted for more than 3% of GDP, while in Ireland and Luxembourg it accounted for less than 1%.
In 14 of the 27 EU Member States, this share increased during the period 2018-2022, with the biggest increase in Slovenia (0.4 percentage point). In contrast, the share fell in eight EU Member States, with the biggest reduction in Estonia (0.4 percentage point) and remained constant in the other five EU Member States.