EUROPEAN COMMISSION EUROSTAT Directorate E: Sectoral and regional statistics Doc. ENV/ DIMESA Bureau Oct 2013/ 04 Point 4 of the agenda The Resource Efficiency Scoreboard 2 nd DIMESA Bureau Meeting 2013 23 October 2013 Eurostat, Luxembourg Room B2/464
[Blank page] 2
Resource efficiency indicators and scoreboard 1. POLICY BACKGROUND The thematic area of sustainable use of natural resources and products is very broad, and there is a wide variety of already existing data and related indicators in this area. The Commission introduced a strategy on this issue in 2005 1. Since then, the process further developed. In 2010, the Commission published a communication 2 titled Europe 2020 - A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. 'A Resource-efficient Europe' ( Resource efficiency ) is one of the seven flagship initiatives 3 of the Europe 2020 strategy. It aims at creating a framework for policies to support the shift towards a resource-efficient and low-carbon economy. A Roadmap 4 developed in the context of the Resource efficiency included a set of indicators 5 to monitor efficient use of resources EU-wide. 2. RESOURCE EFFICIENCY CONCEPT Natural resources underpin the functioning of the European and global economy and our quality of life. Intensive use of the world's resources puts pressure on our planet and threatens the security of supply. In response, improving resource efficiency means producing more from less (i.e. making better use of our limited natural resources like metals, minerals, fuels, water, crops, fertile soil and clean air) and at the same time reducing the environmental impact of resource use 6 (pressure on land resulting in erosion, CO 2 emissions polluting the air, nutrients leaking to waters and polluting them ). One may consider as well that improving resource efficiency means producing more outputs with the same amount of inputs or the same amount of outputs with less inputs. 3. RESOURCE EFFICIENCY SCOREBOARD Resource efficiency is a key policy and delivering relevant, reliable, timely indicators is a pre-condition for success. In the context of the European Semester 7, DG Environment developed a scoreboard of existing indicators. The list of indicators builds on open consultations organised by DG Environment as well as the output of expert panels. The first draft version of the scoreboard was proposed in May 2012 and included 19 indicators whereas its latest draft version consists of 29 indicators (Annex 1). Beyond monitoring the implementation of the roadmap to a resource-efficient Europe, the scoreboard will be used to communicate the importance of the link between resources and the economy, and to engage the stakeholders. The scoreboard grasps the link between resources and the economy both at the macroeconomic level (use of a lead indicator on resource productivity (GDP/DMC)) and at a micro 1 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/result.do?t1=v5&t2=2005&t3=670&rechtype=rech_naturel&submit=search 2 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/result.do?t1=v5&t2=2010&t3=2020&rechtype=rech_naturel&submit=search 3 http://ec.europa.eu/resource-efficient-europe/pdf/resource_efficient_europe_en.pdf 4 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/lexuriserv/lexuriserv.do?uri=celex:dkey=615217:en:not 5 See Annex 6 of http://ec.europa.eu/environment/resource_efficiency/pdf/working_paper_part2.pdf 6 As defined by the Commission in its paper "EU draft scoreboard on resource efficiency, assessing trends towards a Resource-efficient Europe, version 31 May 2012". 7 http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/making-it-happen/ 3
or sectorial level (most of the thematic indicators). This allows an overall view upon the usual conflict between economy and ecology. Structure of the scoreboard The list of indicators which are presented in the scoreboard is the result of an evaluation of policymakers needs to set up targets and availability and feasibility of the information from a statistics users perspective, seeking an optimal compromise between the policy issues to be measured and the availability of data with sufficient quality and perspective of continuity. The list of indicators has been discussed at length with DG Environment has also been thoroughly discussed with the major data and indicator producers (in Eurostat, the European Environment Agency and the Joint Research Centre). Apart from indicators developed by these bodies, other indicators from international recognised sources have also been selected. The scoreboard is a three-tier system structured around 1) a lead indicator on resources; 2) a dashboard of indicators on land, water and carbon; and 3) a set of theme-specific indicators which are grouped under the headers 'Transforming the economy, 'Natural capital and ecosystem services' and 'Key sectors'. Development process Eurostat has undertaken the task to publish the scoreboard in its website. It is expected to be published officially at the end of October/early November 2013. Although most of underlying statistics for the calculation of the indicators are available and published by Eurostat and therefore are of sufficient quality for publication, the process to produce the indicators is complex. For some indicators from non-eurostat sources (JRC, EEA, the Pan European Bird Monitoring Network, Eco-Innovation Observatory) the quality checks still had to be done, and the data producers had to be consulted for underlying datasets and, this was more problematic, the meta-data with the information on the production of the indicators in order to carry out the quality grading. Also for the Eurostat indicators new meta-data sheets had to be produced, by taking metadata from existing underlying data sets for the components of the indicators. All resource efficiency indicators in the scoreboard are now accompanied by a meta-data sheet in the ESMS-IP format (see Fig. 4). In certain cases there is still no complete evidence that the indicators fit to all the quality dimensions required in the Code of Practice. In those cases, the metadata files to the indicators outline the pending quality issues. 4
Scoreboard presentation The scoreboard will be included in the Europe 2020 indicators section which is visible from the Eurostat homepage (Fig. 1). Fig. 1 In this section, Eurostat displays the Headline indicators of the Europe 2020 strategy and the resource efficiency scoreboard (Fig. 2). The presentation of the scoreboard follows the layout adopted for the headline indicators. The reference period of the scoreboard consists of eight years in the period 2000 2012. Users will be able to select the presentation of the indicators for the EU-27/28 aggregates or individual Member States. 5
Fig. 2 By clicking on the button (see Fig. 2), the user will see the full indicator table (Fig. 3) Fig. 3 Metadata profiles (Fig. 4) will exist for all the indicators and will be accessed by clicking on the button (see Fig. 2). 6
Fig. 4 All the scoreboard indicators will be integrated in the Eurostat database (Fig. 5) and will be found under the path: Tables on EU policy > Europe 2020 indicators > Resource Efficiency indicators. Fig. 5 7
Evolution of the scoreboard The scoreboard will not be a static product. It will evolve together with the Resourceefficient Europe initiative covering the demand for indicators to monitor the progress towards the 2020 targets. It will also support new policies on climate change, energy, transport, raw materials, agriculture and fisheries, and biodiversity that should take into account the need to use our natural resources more efficiently. Some indicators, which are more to be seen as proxies than ideal indicators to measure resource efficiency, might be replaced by more suitable ones. The on-going discussion between policymakers as main indicator users and their producers will lead to new development work: Drivers are the requests to accompany the current lead indicator GDP/DMC by Raw Material Productivity (GDP/RMC), the revision of the Water Exploitation Index and the expressed need for footprint-type indicators. The scoreboard will be improved in the future in many aspects such as quality, development of new indicators based on the accounting framework and replacement of some lesser quality indicators. A future evolution of the scoreboard will also expand relevant breakdowns of some of the basic indicators. While this is already the case for some, e.g. taxes, material productivity and waste, in the future the approach will be extended to others and even some of the existing breakdowns will be deepened in particular to present details in reference to different economic sectors. Policymakers usually set targets and request indicators to monitor the distance and the remaining time to reach the given target. The discussion in the European Resource Efficiency Platform has started with the aim to set clear targets. Eurostat has requested to be closely involved in this process, as targets need to be feasible and statistics and indicators should exist to measure their achievement. DIMESA Bureau Members are invited: - to give their opinions on the progress made with the development of the Resource Efficiency Scoreboard; - to inform about national activities in the development of resource efficiency indicators that could provide useful insights for the Eurostat s future development work and discussion with indicator users; - to discuss ways to ensure involvement of Member States to achieve coherence in RE indicators and provide guidance to Eurostat on approaches to be followed, including presentation issues; - to give their views on how the topic should be best presented at the 2014 DIMESA EEA Management Board Seminar. 8
Annex 1 EU DRAFT SCOREBOARD ON RESOURCE EFFICIENCY Theme/subtheme/indicator LEAD INDICATOR 1.1 Resources Data source Reference (latest) year 1.1.1 Resource productivity Eurostat 2011 1.1.2 Domestic material consumption per capita Eurostat 2011 DASHBOARD INDICATORS 1.2 Land 1.2.1 Productivity of built-up artificial areas Eurostat 2012 1.2.2 Built-up areas as a share of total land Eurostat 2012 1.3 Water 1.3.1 Water exploitation index Eurostat 2011 1.3.2 Water productivity Eurostat, EEA 2011 1.4 Carbon 1.4.1 Greenhouse gas emissions per capita EEA 2011 1.4.2 Energy intensity of the economy Eurostat 2011 1.4.3 Energy dependence Eurostat 2011 1.4.4 Share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption 2. TRANSFORMING THE ECONOMY 2.1 Turning waste into a resource Eurostat 2011 2.1.1 Generation of waste excluding major mineral wastes Eurostat 2010 2.1.2 Landfill rate of waste excluding major mineral wastes Eurostat 2010 2.1.3 Recycling rate of municipal waste Eurostat 2011 2.1.4 Recycling rate of e-waste Eurostat 2010 2.2 Supporting research and innovation 2.2.1 Eco-innovation index Eco-innovation Observatory 2012 2.3 Getting the prices right 2.3.1 Environmental tax revenues - % of total revenues from taxes and social contributions Eurostat 2011 2.3.2 Energy taxes by paying sector Eurostat 2010 3. NATURAL CAPITAL AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES 3.1 Biodiversity 3.1.1 Index of common farmland birds species PECBMS 2010 3.1.2 Area under organic farming Eurostat 2011 3.1.3 Landscape fragmentation EEA 2009 3.2 Safeguarding clean air 3.2.1 Urban population exposure to air pollution by particulate matter 3.2.2 EU urban population exposed to PM10 concentrations exceeding the daily limit value EEA 2011 EEA 2011 8
Theme/subtheme/indicator Data source Reference (latest) year 3.3 Land and soils 3.3.1 Soil erosion by water area eroded by more than 10 tonnes per hectare per year JRC 2006 3.3.2 Gross nutrient balance in agricultural land - nitrogen and phosphorus 3.4 Marine resources Indicator to be added 4. KEY AREAS 4.1 Addressing food Eurostat 2010 4.1.1 Daily calorie supply per capita by source FAO 2009 4.2 Improving buildings Indicator to be added 4.3 Ensuring efficient mobility 4.3.1 Average carbon dioxide emissions per km from new passenger cars ICES EEA 2012 4.3.2 Pollutant emissions from transport EEA 2011 4.3.3 Modal split of passenger transport Eurostat 2011 4.3.4 Modal split of freight transport Eurostat 2011 10