Environmental Taxes by Economic Activity

The environmental tax statistics are compiled based on Eurostat’s 2024 Environmental taxes - a statistical guide. Environmental tax is defined as "A tax whose tax base is a physical unit (or a proxy of a physical unit) of something that has a proven, specific negative impact on the environment, and which is identified in ESA2010 as a tax". Environmental tax statistics are part of European environmental economic accounts, which constitute satellite accounts to national accounts. Thus, environmental tax statistics follows ESA2010 definition of ‘taxes’. Consequently, only payments that are identified as taxes in the national accounts can be reported as environmental taxes whereas other types of payments to government are not excluded from the scope of the data collection. Compliance with the tax definition of the national accounts improves international comparability of the statistics, and is in line with the guidance, concepts, and definitions of the System of environmental and economic accounting (SEEA).