Environment

How much nature does a person need (consume)?

In order to live, man uses nature. He shapes it, and he consumes it: He covers areas with buildings, withdraws raw materials, uses and pollutes water and the air. This leads to the question for the sustainability of human behaviour: Does man consume nature in a way that will leave something for his descendants?

According to the new environmental statistics law, environmental pressures such as “waste”, “air pollution” and “water pollution” are covered. Items covered as part of environmental statistics include the extent to which water stocks are utilised and the amount of waste produced and reutilised in Germany. Also, the costs of environmental protection borne by enterprises and local units are determined. What is covered in addition is investments in environmental protection such as in climate protection and renewable energies.

What is the role the environment plays for the economy? And, in turn, what is the impact economic activities have on the environment? Those interactions are the focus of the environmental-economic accounting (EEA) system of the Federal Statistical Office. The goal of EEA is to describe three forms of interaction between the economy and the environment: Pressure on the environment, state of the environment, and environmental protection measures. The basic idea is to start from the usual description of labour and capital in a national economy and to add the “factor of nature” to that description.