Press Release: Environmental accounts. Enviromental goods and services. Preview data 2024.

Main results

The Gross Value Added of the environmental economy decreased by 0.1% in 2024 and represented 2.72% of the GDP.
The environmental economy generated 541.5 thousand jobs, 2.67% of the total economy.

More information

The environmental economy, defined as the value of the activities associated with the protection of the environment and the management of natural resources, decreased by 0.1% in 2024. This represented 2.72% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), compared to 2.90% in 2023.

Employment generated by environmental activities accounted for 2.67% of the total, 0.02 points more than in the previous year.

GVA and environmental employment (percentages of GDP and total employment)

The Gross Value Added (GVA) associated with the production of environmental goods and services (hereinafter Environmental GVA) stood at 43,438.49 million euros, 0.1% less than in 2023, while the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 6.4% in current terms.

Annual change in GDP and environmental GVA

Percentage

In 2024, environmental employment amounted to 541.5 thousand full-time equivalent jobs, an increase of 3.5% over the previous year. On the other hand, total employment in the economy rose by 2.8% that year.

Annual variation of total employment and environmental employment

Porcentaje

Results by environmental domain

The domains with the greatest weight over the Environmental GVA generated in 2024 were Energy from renewable sources (30.1% of the total) and Saving and management of energy (23.5%).

GVA by environmental domains. Year 2024

Millions of euros

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The area Protection of soils, surface water and groundwater contributed the most to the variation rate (1.120 points), while Energy from renewable sources had the most negative contribution (-2.989 points).

In terms of employment, the environmental domains that generated the most were Energy savings and management (43.4% of the total) and Waste management (22.2%).

Results by economic activity

Activities with the greatest weight in the Environmental GVA in 2024 were Water supply, sanitation, waste management and remediation activities (22.6% of the total) and Construction (21.3%).

Similarly, the economic activities with the highest environmental employment were Construction and Water supply, sanitation, waste management and remediation activities, with 209.9 and 138.4 thousand jobs, respectively.

Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities contributed the most to the employment growth rate (1.480 points).

As for Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, it registered the highest annual increase, 7.6%.

Employment by environmental domains. Year 2024

Thousands of full-time equivalent jobs

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Exports

The total environmental production rose to 106,250.9 million euros in 2024. Of this figure, 17,485.8 million were allocated to export, 0.5% less than the previous year.

The areas with the greatest weight in exports were Air and climate (35.8% of the total) and Energy from renewable sources (18.7%). Exports in these areas mainly include electric vehicles, energy products (biofuels) and capital goods associated with the production of renewable electricity (wind power generators).

Exports by environmental domains. Year 2024

Percentage

Data revisions and updates

The data published today is provisional and will be revised when next year's data is released. All results of this operation are available on INEBase.

This synthesis complies with the reporting requirements of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1131 of 26 March 2025, amending EU Regulation No 691/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards climate change mitigation investments and introducing the classification of environmental purposes.

Methodological note

The objective of the Environmental Accounts (EA) is to integrate environmental information into the central system of National Accounts in a coherent way. They include a set of satellite accounts, which are transmitted annually, compiled using the accounting formats applicable to the different sectoral and territorial areas, with a major presence of physical data. They display the interactions among the economy, households and environmental factors.

The Environmental Goods and Services Sector (EGSS) Account presents data on the main variables associated with the production of goods and services whose main objective is the protection of the environment and/or the most efficient management of natural resources, classified by economic activities and environmental domains.

For more information, you can access the Standardised Methodological Report.

INE statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Good Practice for European Statistics. More information on Quality at INE and the Code of Best Practices.