All official European Union website addresses are in the europa.eu domain.
See all EU institutions and bodies
An official website of the European Union | How do you know?
Environmental information systems
The environmental goods and services sector contribution to the European Union economy, in terms of value added, increased from 2.1% in 2010 to 3.3% in 2022, reaching EUR 601 billion in 2025 prices. This rise was mainly caused by significant increases in environmental economy activities related to renewable energy production, energy efficiency, and waste management. The EU aims to achieve a green transition and carbon-neutral economy by 2050. This requires further significant increases in environmental economy activities.
Figure 1. Gross value added of the EU’s environmental goods and services sector by domain, 2010-2022
The European Green Deal (EGD) and the 8th Environment Action Programme (8th EAP) aim to accelerate the green transition of the European Union’s (EU) economy. The EU’s environmental goods and services sector, also known as the green economy, produces goods and provides services that are used in environmental protection and resource management.
The contribution of the environmental economy to the overall economy (i.e. to gross domestic product (GDP)) in the EU increased from 2.1% in 2010 to 3.3% in 2022. Over this period, the environmental economy increased by 5.4% annually on average, while EU GDP increased by 3.2%.
The main domains of the green economy increased in the period 2010-2022 for gross value added (GVA). Most growth was due to increases in the GVA of renewable energy and energy efficiency activities, followed by waste management activities. In 2022, green economy activities contributed a GVA of EUR 601 billion (2025 prices) to the EU-27 economy.
The EGD increases the ambition of EU environment and climate policy, to support the transition to a carbon-neutral, circular, green economy by 2050. It is expected that the contribution of the green economy to EU GDP will increase further in the coming years.
The application of circular economy principles across the EU is expected to increase EU GDP by an additional 0.5% by 2030. Significant additional economic activity will be required to implement the ‘Fit for 55’ package, which aims to raise output from renewable energy sources, such as solar energy or offshore wind sources, and improve energy efficiency. The Net Zero Industry Act, striving to scale up manufacturing of clean technologies, will also boost the competitiveness of EU industry and increase economic activity within the EU.
Additional resources have been made available to support the expansion of the EU’s environmental economy. The EU 2021-2027 budget has earmarked additional funding for climate- and biodiversity-related activities. Grants and loans are available through the 2021-2026 EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) for climate-related activities and through the 2022-2027 REPowerEU plan for activities related to renewable energy and energy efficiency. The RRF was created to mitigate the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The REPowerEU plan was devised to rapidly reduce the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and accelerate the clean energy transition. The EU’s recently announced Clean Industrial Deal commits €100 billion to accelerate the clean energy transition, focusing on decarbonising energy-intensive industries through investment in clean technologies and infrastructure.
Figure 2. Gross value added of the environmental goods and services sector as a share of gross domestic product, by EU Member States, 2014 and 2022
Environmental economy activities are expected to increase in importance at global level. A recent report estimates that the global market volume for environmental technology and resource efficiency activities will increase by 7.3% per year until 2030. Increasing opportunities for the environmental economy, particularly for economic sectors that contribute to achieving net-zero emissions, are also highlighted in the International Energy Agency reports 'World energy outlook 2023' and 'Energy technology perspectives 2023'.
Shares of the environmental economy in the total economy increased in 23 of the EU Member States between 2014 and 2022, with the biggest increases reported for Luxembourg and Italy. Shares varied considerably across Member States in 2022, from approximately 0.5% in Hungary to more than 4% in Finland, Austria and Estonia.