Statistical Terms Glossary

Environmental degradation is the deterioration in environmental quality from ambient concentrations of pollutants and other activities and processes such as improper land use and natural disasters

A characterisation of the economic contribution and environmental burden by industry. Economic contribution is the contribution an industry makes to GP or employment and environmental burden may be represented as the percent of emissions or residuals or use of material and energy over the total.

Refers to the process of sharing and constructing environmental information and knowledge, as well as information on how humans interact with the environment.

An environmental effect is the result of environmental impacts on human health and welfare. The term is also used synonymously with environmental impact

Involves the transformation of perceptions and attitudes into concrete, pro-environmental actions. Individual and social participation and engagement in environmental processes intended to improve and protect the local and global environment are a concrete manifestation of understanding and motivation of, and commitment to protecting and improving the environment, expressed through behaviour.

See Ecological balance

Environmental expenditures are capital and current expenditures related to characteristic activities and facilities specified in classifications of environmental protection activities

Environmental externalities refer to the economic concept of uncompensated environmental effects of production and consumption that affect consumer utility and enterprise cost outside the market mechanism.
As a consequence of negative externalities, private costs of production tend to be lower than its “social” cost. It is the aim of the “polluter/user-pays” principle to prompt households and enterprises to internalise externalities in their plans and budgets

Functions provided by the environment. They correspond to the various uses to which naturally produced physical surroundings are put for economic ends. Three types of environmental functions are distinguished: resource functions, sink functions and service functions.

Consists of a heterogeneous set of producers of technologies, goods and services that (i) measure, control, restore, prevent, treat, minimize, research and sensitise environmental damages to air, water and soil as well as problems related to waste, noise, biodiversity and landscape (this includes “cleaner” technologies, goods and services that prevent or minimize pollution) and (ii) measure, control, restore, prevent, minimize, research and sensitise resource depletion.

Environmental health indicators are indicators that describe the link between environment and health by measuring the health effect due to exposure to one or several environmental hazards

Environmental impact refers to the direct effect of socio-economic activities and natural events on the components of the environment

An environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an analytical process that systematically examines the possible environmental consequences of the implementation of projects, programmes and policies

An environmental indicator is a parameter, or a value derived from parameters, that points to, provides information about and/or describes the state of the environment, and has a significance extending beyond that directly associated with any given parametric value. The term may encompass indicators of environmental pressures, conditions and responses

Are composite or more complex measures that combine and synthesize more than one environmental indicator or statistic and are weighted according to different methods.

Includes quantitative and qualitative facts describing the state of the environment and its changes as described in the different components of the FDES.

Environmental labelling provides an indication of the environmental impact—related characteristics of a product, typically on the package containing the product, by private or public institutions

Integrating poverty- environment linkages into national development planning processes and their outputs, such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) and Millennium Development Goal (MDG) strategies.

Environmental media refer to abiotic components of the natural environment, namely, air, water and land

Refers to individuals’ and groups’ notions of, attitudes towards and evaluations of the environment, both as a whole or with respect to specific environmental issues.

The products of environmental activities as well as the specific products used for intermediate consumption or fixed capital formation of environmental activities. Also included are connected and adapted products.

Environmental protection refers to any activity to maintain or restore the quality of environmental media through preventing the emission of pollutants or reducing the presence of polluting substances in environmental media. It may consist of:
(a) changes in characteristics of goods and services,
(b) changes in consumption patterns,
(c) changes in production techniques,
(d) treatment or disposal of residuals in separate environmental protection facilities,
(e) recycling, and
(f) prevention of degradation of the landscape and ecosystems.

Environmental protection activities are those where the primary purpose is the protection of the environment; that is, the avoidance of the negative effects on the environment caused by economic activities. The activities are generally classified according to the classification of environmental protection activities (CEPA 2000).

Ancillary activities carried out by enterprises’ own employees coming within the definition of environmental protection. Examples are in-house waste or waste water collection and treatment, air scrubbers in power plants and environmental management units within enterprises.

Environmental protection and resource management activities include not only those where the primary purpose is environmental protection but also activities which are not necessarily carried out for environmental protection reasons but which nevertheless produce clear, measurable environmental benefits. An example is spending on energy-saving equipment.

An assessment of the capital stock used for environmental protection activities, which allows to derive consumption of fixed capital for environmental protection.

The OECD and Eurostat system of collection of environmental protection expenditure and revenues data.

An internal satellite account comprising production and generation of income accounts and supply and use table for environmental protection activities and products.

These activities which result in an output which is separately identified in national accounts, by reference to the ISIC classification. Main external protection activity is ISIC 90 “sewage, and refuse disposal, sanitation and similar activities”. Other environmental protection activities may be found in ISIC 37 (recycling), 45 (construction), 51 (for example wholesaling of waste materials and scrap including sorting), 73 (research and development), 75 (general administration), etc.