Nature productivity

What does the indicator describe?

The environment is used in many ways in goods and services production and directly through household consumption. Environmental-Economic Accounting (EEA), which aims at describing the interrelations between the economy and the environment, covers the environment as a factor of production in addition to the economic production factors of labour and capital considered in national accounting. In contrast to labour and capital, each of which is aggregated, various environmental input factors have to be regarded separately for the environment factor as there is no single valuation standard. Input factors include raw materials withdrawn from nature, the area used for economic activities and the use of nature as a sink absorbing residuals and pollutants. The services nature provides when it is used as a sink can be measured only indirectly using the quantities of residuals and pollutants emitted into nature.
In accordance with the method used to determine labour and capital productivity, the nature productivity indicator relates economic performance – measured as the gross domestic product – to individual quantities of environmental input factors measured in physical units. Nature productivity serves to express how efficiently a national economy uses environmental factors.

How is the indicator calculated?

The nature productivity indicator is calculated separately for each individual environmental input factor. Presently, the following factors are considered:

Nature as a source of resources:

Area	area used for settlement and traffic purposes (km²)
Energy	energy consumption as the consumption of primary energy (petajoules, (PJ))
Raw materials	raw materials consumption measured as the withdrawal of used abiotic raw materials from the domestic environment plus imported abiotic goods (mn t)
Water withdrawal	water consumption as the withdrawal of water from the environment (mn m³)

Nature as a sink for residuals and pollutants:

Greenhouse gases	emission of greenhouse gases, here: carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), dinitrogen oxide (laughing gas, N₂O), partially halogenated chlorofluorocarbons (H-CFCs), tetrafluoromethane (CF₄ ), hexafluoroethane (C₂F₆), oktafluoropropane (C₃F₈ ) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆)
Air pollutants	emission of sulphur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NO_x ), ammonia (NH₃) and volatile hydrocarbons excluding methane (NMVOC)
Water discharge	discharge of used water into nature
Waste	disposal of waste

To calculate the productivity of nature for each of these input factors, each individual factor is related to economic performance:

gross domestic product (in real terms)
productivity =	---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
input factor

When is the indicator released?

Nature productivity data are published regularly in the Annual Reports of Environmental-Economic Accounting ("Umweltnutzung und Wirtschaft" - Use of Nature and the Environment). Results are presented at the press conference on Environmental-Economic Accounting. The Report and further material submitted at the press conference may be accessed on the web-site of the Federal Statistical Office using the index word "Umwelt" (Environment) or obtained from the Environmental-Economic Accounting Division at the Federal Statistical Office.

How accurate is the indicator?

Environmental-Economic Accounting is a secondary statistics whose results are obtained in accordance with uniform concepts and definitions by drawing upon all sources of primary statistics available and other sources. Current results, in particular, can often be calculated only on the basis of preliminary or incomplete statistical data. Concepts and definitions are revised at longer intervals to meet new requirements such as an improved comparability at the international level. This is why topical results of Environmental-Economic Accounting in general are of a preliminary nature and are revised once more complete or precise basic data are available. From time to time it is necessary to revise figures for periods further back in the past, i.e. when survey results are incorporated which are available only at longer intervals and when concepts are modified.
For an interpretation of productivity data it has to be kept in mind that the total yield of economic activity in real terms is related exclusively to the respective production factor when calculating nature productivity figures, although the product is a result of the synergy of all production factors. Thus the productivity figures determined and their development over time can merely provide some basic ideas.

Further information

Phone: +49 611 75 4585

E-mail: ugr@destatis.de

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