Environmental goods and services sector accounts : first statistics

The 1990s saw the first efforts to make the national accounts “greener”, i.e. to introduce into the System of National Accounts (SNA) of satellite accounts reflecting the relationships (flows) between the economy and the environment. They were supposed to ensure the provision of better information to assess progress in implementing the principles of sustainable development. As a result of this process European environmental economic accounts were phased in. The first modules were introduced by the regulations of 2011 (the first three modules) and of 2014 (three more modules). The article surveys the most important issues related to economic environmental accounts and shows the first statistical data collected by Eurostat. The aim of this article is thus to analyse the main difficulties of the calculation of environmental costs in the context of the environmental goods and services sector accounts, i.e. the subsequent environmental accounts modules being implemented.