Key points at a glance
3 Costs and benefits of environmental protection
3.1 What it costs to protect the environment
Total expenditure on environmental protection
In 2007, industry, state and privatised public disposal enterprises spent a total of 33.9 billion EUR on pro-tection of the environment. This corresponds to a mere 1.4 percent of the gross domestic product. More than half of this figure is borne by the enterprises responsible for water supply and disposal and waste management services that were formerly in the pub-lic sector. The state bears a further 23 percent of the expenditure, and only the remaining 20 percent is borne by the manufacturing sector.
By far the most money goes into water conservation and waste management, which are primarily the re-sponsibility of the state and privatised public enter-prises. These two categories account for 91 percent of all spending on environmental protection (cf. Figure 28). A further eight percent of expenditure is due to air quality control, and roughly one percent to noise abatement.
Expenditure on environmental protection comprises capital investment and the cost of materials for the ongoing operation of the installations. Since 2006 the statistics have also included capital expenditure and material costs by the manufacturing sector on climate protection (see later remarks below). The estimates by the Federal Statistical Office concerning
expenditure on climate protection as a whole, e.g.
including state spending, are not yet available. In view of the growing importance of climate protec-tion, therefore, the figures for spending on environ-mental protection represent a lower limit. In 2000 the state and industry spent about three billion EUR less on environmental protection than in 1995. Since then expenditure has remained at about the same level (cf. Figure 29).
Figure 28: Environmental protection expenditure by
environmental sectors 2007
Waste management Water conservation
noise abatement air quality control
45 %
46 %
8 % 1 %
Source: Own diagram based on Federal Statistical Office (2010b)
Figure 29: development of environmental protection expenditure (in million Eur)
40,000 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0
12,460
14,110
8,960 7,070
9,550
16,080 19,240
8,020
6,780 6,500
7,760
19,550 20,050
7,860
6,310 6,640
7,690 19,540
1995 2000 2004 2005 2006 2007
Privatised public enterprises manufacturing sector State
Source: Own diagram based on Federal Statistical Office (2010b)
Underlying data 50
the Environmental Economic accounts prepared by the Federal Statistical Office calculate total national expend-iture on environmental protection on the basis of various statistical sources. the input data originate from the financial statistics (annual accounting statistics of the public sector) and from the statistics on environmental protection investments, and also on ongoing expenditure on environmental protection in the manufacturing sector. data are also used from the statistics on the annual accounts of state-governed funds, institutions and enterprises. In view of a lack of data or non-availability at the time of publica-tion, the results do not include environmental protection expenditure by certain segments. For example, data are not available for the agricultural and construction sectors, for parts of the services sector, especially for completely private waste and wastewater disposal enterprises, or for the private household sector. the estimates by the Federal Statistical Office to determine climate protection expend-iture are not yet complete.
Environmental protection expenditure by industry
Expenditure by industry in the classic environmental sectors waste management, water conservation, noise abatement and air quality control declined slightly from 2003 onwards. Between 2006 and 2007 there was once again a slight rise of nearly 2 percent (cf. Figure 30). The share of national environmental protection expenditure that is borne by companies in the manufacturing sector fell from 25.2 percent in 1995 to 19.6 percent in 2007.
However, the statistics only register part of what in-dustry actually spends on environmental protection.
The role of integrated environmental protection is probably underestimated. For example, many process-oriented innovations serve to cut costs, but at the same time they have environmental benefits because they save resources and reduce emissions. The stat-istics on environmental protection spending do not take full account of such measures, and in some cases they do not include them at all. And, as mentioned above, the expenditure on climate protection is still not included in these figures.
Figure 30: Environmental protection expenditure by manufacturing sector (in million Eur)
8,000
7,000
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Waste management Water conservation noise abatement air quality control Source: Federal Statistical Office, Environmental Economic accounts
50 Cf. Federal Statistical Office (2010b).
Additive and integrated environmental protection investments
Additive investments relate to systems that are separate from the rest of the production process, such as incineration plants for waste, sewage works, noise barriers or exhaust air filters. Such measures are easy to identify and as a rule they are simple to verify in the accounts and hence for statistical purposes as well.
Integrated measures, by contrast, form part of a larger system and are not clearly identifiable – recirculation of substances and cooling water, for example, or use of heat exchangers to recover heat of reaction. they prevent envir-onmental impacts before they arise or during the process, and are therefore especially important from a resource conservation point of view.
Investing in environmental protection and climate protection
For the manufacturing sector, the environmental statistics provide more detailed information on the
breakdown of investment in environmental protec-tion among the individual branches of industry and on investment in climate protection.51
Expenditure on and investment in environmental protection
Expenditure on environmental protection comprises capital investment and the cost of ongoing operation of the envir-onmental protection installations. capital investment thus forms part of total expenditure. the information available on the manufacturing sector’s capital investment in environ-mental protection is more differentiated than the informa-tion on overall spending on environmental protecinforma-tion. the results are an important building block in the Environmental Economic accounts (EEa). there, total environmental spending by the national economy is calculated by taking the input data “Environmental investment” and adding
“Ongoing environmental expenditure”.
Figure 31: Industries with the highest investment in environmental protection 2007
Energy supply manufacture of coke, refined petroleum
products and nuclear fuel manufacture of chemical products Water supply manufacture of motor vehicles
and motor vehicle parts metal production and processing Food industry
manufacture of machinery and equipment glass, ceramics, processing of non-metallic minerals
manufacture of metal products Other
0 4 8 12 16 20 28 32
29.9 % 15.3 %
11.0 % 8.5 % 6.1 % 5.6 % 3.5 % 3.0 % 2.8 % 2.6 %
11.7 %
24 Share in total environmental protection investment in percent Source: Federal Statistical Office (2010c).
51 Cf. Federal Statistical Office (2010c).
Figure 32: Environmental investments by the manufacturing sector broken down by environmental sectors 2007
climate protection air quality control Water conservation
Waste management noise abatement Soil remediation nature conser- vation and landscape management
0 4 8 12 16 20 28 32
37.5 % 27.7 %
23.5 % 6.1 %
2.8 % 1.3 % 1.1 %
24 26 30 34 36 38 40
22 18
14 10
6 2
Source: Federal Statistical Office (2010c).
According to the environmental statistics, the manu-facturing sector invested some 3 billion EUR in envir-onmental and climate protection in 2007. Nearly 90 percent is concentrated in 10 branches of industry.
Energy supply, petroleum processing, chemicals and water supply were the industries with the highest capital investment in environmental protection in 2007. Nearly 30 percent of all investment in environ-mental protection is due to companies in the energy supply sector. A major item here is investment in climate protection, for example emission reduction measures. In overall terms too, these companies invest the most in climate protection measures, fol-lowed by air quality control and water conservation (cf. Figure 32).
The statistics also include a breakdown of climate protection investment among various measures. This indicates that roughly half of investment expenditure is due to emission reduction, about 30 percent to efficiency improvement and energy saving, and 17 percent to the use of renewable energy sources (cf. Figure 33).
According to provisional figures from the Federal Statistical Office, investment in environmental protection by the manufacturing sector in 2008 came to about 6.1 billion EUR. However, the industry classification was revised in 2008 with the result that the data for 2008 are not in general comparable with the data for 2007.52
Figure 33: climate protection measures by the
manufacturing sector 2007
use of renewable energies
Energy efficiency and energy saving
avoidance and reduction of emissions of Kyoto greenhouse gases 17.1 %
50.6 %
32.3 %
Source: Federal Statistical Office (2010c).
52 This change was due to a necessary and binding requirement for international harmonisation of classifications, cf. Federal Statistical Office (no year stated).
Financial assistance measures reduce spending by industry
although companies spend money on environmental protec-tion, e.g. when they have to satisfy certain requirements or comply with limit values, they can on the other hand take advantage of financial assistance for environmental protec-tion that is available from naprotec-tional and regional authorities and the Eu. In view of the large number of programmes it is not possible to quote a total figure for financial assistance provided for environmental protection. For example, under the heading “Environment and nature conservation” the funding database of the Federal ministry of Economics lists 77 assistance programmes for companies, including 12 federal programmes. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are assisted by 110 programmes at federal and regional level. Further assistance is also available primarily in the climate protection sector, for example under the Federal Environment ministry’s climate Initiative or a number of programmes run by the KfW banking group (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau – KfW). chapter 1.7 provides an overview of the assistance programmes.
Example: National Climate Initiative
the national climate Initiative assists german industry through a number of projects and programmes. the aim is to make production processes in industry less expensive and more climate friendly. the climate Initiative focuses on energy efficiency and thereby helps to reduce day-to-day energy costs. companies have considerable opportunities to make more efficient use of energy. One example is the kick-off programme for commercial refrigeration installa-tions. merely using the technology already available on the market, it would be possible to save 11 billion kWh a year (two fossil-fuel thermal power stations) in germany. the Environmental Innovation Programme also provides add-itional assistance funds for new technologies in the climate protection sector. Other examples of assistance measures under the climate Initiative include innovation competitions, action weeks and information events.
For example, the figures for 2008 show a dramatic rise in capital spending on water conservation, whereas investment in climate protection is down in proportion. This is presumably due to the fact that the entire sector “Water supply; wastewater and waste management and disposal of environmental pollution” is now included in the manufacturing sec-tor. In the comparable section of the “Manufacturing industries” and “Mining and quarrying”, investment in environmental protection in 2008 was 5.3 percent up on 2007. It thus went up by less than overall in-vestment (7.4 percent) by these industries.
Environmental protection expenditure on an international comparison
In 2006 the countries of the EU 25 spent an average of 1.8 percent of their gross domestic product on protecting the environment. With a share of 1.5 per-cent of GDP, Germany was in the lower middle range.
The figures for industry are of a similar order. In terms of GDP, companies in the manufacturing sector throughout the EU spent about 0.4 percent on envir-onmental protection, while the figure for Germany was barely 0.3 percent. The picture is probably different if one includes investment in climate pro-tection, but as yet there are no comparative analyses available.