Environmental protection funding
Environmental measures implemented by the state support the development of environmentally friendly consumption and production habits. One of these measures is environmental taxes. Their share in the total tax revenue in Estonia has increased over the years. The purpose of environmental taxes is to mitigate the negative impact of human activity on the environment and to reduce environmental pollution. Examples of environmental taxes are pollution, energy and transport taxes.
Statistics on environmental protection funding provide information on environmental protection expenditures, environmental subsidies, as well as on environmental taxes paid. They include information, such as
- how much is spent on environmental protection and how large are investments;
- how much manufacturing enterprises invest in environmental protection and who are the biggest investors;
- how large is the environmental tax revenue from enterprises and households;
- how much are environmental protection services consumed;
- which environmental protection or resource management domains receive subsidies and who are the beneficiaries
Environmental protection funding data are used to plan the implementation of environmental protection measures and monitor the ecological tax reform, the purpose of which is to increase taxation on environmental burden and reduce labourlabor taxes.
Accounting for environmental subsidies and similar transfers has been completed, describing how environmental support was distributed in 2022 - funding sources, which economic sectors received transfers, and which environmental protection areas were funded and to what extent. This work (methodological report and pilot data) has been completed as part of the environmental accounting development project and was co-financed by Eurostat (101113157 — 2022-EE-EGD).
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy taxes | 431,910 | 420,935 | 463,783 | 491,299 | 567,409 | 599,595 | 623,734 | 817,049 | 601,638 | 662,623 | 758,024 |
| Transport taxes | 10,789 | 10,936 | 11,305 | 12,159 | 12,521 | 13,044 | 13,231 | 13,371 | 11,100 | 12,671 | 12,730 |
| Pollution taxes | 31,483 | 37,068 | 44,227 | 44,920 | 50,144 | 52,723 | 54,527 | 44,285 | 28,952 | 32,236 | 42,518 |
| Resource taxes | 14,882 | 15,700 | 13,749 | 14,506 | 15,236 | 15,692 | 17,445 | 14,836 | 15,315 | 16,004 | 16,268 |
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National expenditure for environmental protection | 623.6 | 642.8 | 634.1 | 714.7 |
| Consumption of environmental protection services by residents (at purchasers' prices) | 544.0 | 550.9 | 568.2 | 643.8 |
| Gross fixed capital formation in environmental protection activities | 110.9 | 140.3 | 129.7 | 129.7 |
| Transfers | -31.2 | -48.4 | -63.9 | -58.7 |
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Investments | .. | 127,307 | 27,711 | 13,231 | 62,457 | 25,444 | 23,764 | 28,095 | 37,656 |
| Current expenditures | 90,036 | 76,890 | 73,933 | 70,755 | 99,234 | 90,601 | 77,640 | 85,941 | 96,870 |
| Receipts from recovered materials | 56,202 | 53,166 | 57,965 | 60,635 | 57,453 | 51,651 | 52,187 | 68,085 | 90,464 |
Estonia spent nearly 715 million euros on environmental protection in 2022
According to Statistics Estonia, Estonia’s environmental protection expenditure in real terms increased by nearly 37% in the period 2014–2022, that is, from 527 to 715 million euros. The environmental protection activity with the highest expenditure in 2022 was waste management with 347 million euros. The biggest environmental protection investments, worth 75 million euros, were made in wastewater management and protection of soil and water.