Data extracted in November 2024
Planned article update: December 2025
Highlights
Private investment in climate change mitigation in the EU has increased in line with gross domestic product (GDP) since 2005, reaching €95.3 billion or 0.55% of GDP in 2023.
Source: Eurostat (env_ac_ccminv)
This article is a part of the Eurostat online publication Statistics on climate change mitigation. It analyses private investment in climate change mitigation in the European Union (EU). This investment aims to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases, for example by promoting low-carbon technologies or a switch to renewable energy sources. As far as possible, this article indicates which part of the economy (according to the NACE classification) is the investor (see Data sources at the end of this article for further details).
Note on data coverage
The data presented in this article have been modelled and estimated based on investment data from Eurostat’s structural business statistics (SBS). Data from SBS cover the business economy, which includes industry, construction and services, while other economic sectors and public administration are outside the scope. The data presented in this article therefore only refer to private investment by the business economy related to climate change mitigation, whereas investment from the general government and from households is not included. Keeping this scope in mind is important when interpreting the data presented below (also in relation to investment needs stated in policy documents and other studies). A more comprehensive collection of data is planned to be made available in 2026 through Eurostat’s environmental accounts, which will cover additional sectors and economic activities.
Evolution of private investment in climate change mitigation
According to Eurostat estimates, private investment in climate change mitigation in the EU has seen an overall increasing trend since 2005. In 2023, it reached €95.3 billion (in current prices), which corresponds to 0.55% of the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP). Chain-linked data, which allow for comparisons over time by removing the effect of price changes, are so far only available up to 2022. They show a 42% increase in private investment related to climate change mitigation in the EU between 2005 and 2022 (see Figure 1). In relation to GDP, investment remained at around 0.5% between 2005 and 2016. It subsequently increased, reaching a peak of 0.64% in 2021 (switch to unit ‘% of GDP’ in Figure 1). In 2022 and 2023, investment dropped to 0.56% and 0.55% of GDP, respectively.
Investment in climate change mitigation by economic activity
Around 85% of private investment in the EU was carried out by 2 economic activities. In 2023, transportation and storage accounted for 50% of total private investment, followed by electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (hereinafter referred to as ‘electricity and gas supply’), which accounted for 34% (see Figure 2). Virtually all investment from these 2 sectors went into ‘low-carbon transport technologies and services’ and ‘renewable energy production, transmission and storage’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘renewable energy’).
Between 2005 and 2023, the share of investment from the transportation and storage sector fell from 60% to 50%. At the same time, investment from electricity and gas supply increased from 23% to 34%. Throughout the available period, these 2 sectors accounted for around 80% to 90% of total investment in climate change mitigation in the EU.
The manufacturing sector showed a small but steady gain over time and accounted for 11% of private investment in climate change mitigation in 2023. Investment in this sector mainly related to ‘renewable energy’, ‘energy efficiency technologies’ and ‘planning, construction, and installation services’. Investment from the construction sector lost in relative importance and only accounted for 4% in that year. Virtually all of the investment in this sector was related to ‘planning, construction, and installation services’.
Climate change mitigation investment by economic activity in relation to gross value added
Gross value added measures the contribution of each economic activity to the whole economy and is thus a suitable measure for putting the investment figures presented above into perspective. The 2 largest investors in climate change mitigation at EU level – transportation and storage as well as electricity and gas supply – also recorded the highest investment shares of gross value added (see Figure 3). In 2023, climate change mitigation investment in electricity and gas supply amounted to around 8% of the sector’s gross value added. For transportation and storage, the investment share was around 6%. In contrast, climate change mitigation investment in construction and manufacturing accounted for less than 1% of these sectors’ gross value added.
The investment share of electricity and gas supply has increased since 2011 when it was about 7%, peaking at just above 15% in 2020 and 2021. In 2022 and 2023, however, the sector’s investment share regarding climate change mitigation fell back to below 10%. Transportation and storage has also recorded an increase in its investment share since 2013, albeit at a slower pace, peaking at almost 8% in 2021. This means that in these 2 economic activities, investment in climate change mitigation grew more strongly than gross value added over the past decade. In contrast, the investment shares for construction and manufacturing have remained below 1% of gross value added since 2011, with construction even experiencing a slight decline.
Investment in climate change mitigation across EU countries
In 2023, Lithuania and Denmark reported the highest shares of investment in climate change mitigation, with 1.5% of GDP, followed by Latvia and Sweden with 1.2%. In all remaining countries, investment in climate change mitigation was below 1% of GDP in 2023 (see Map 1). Ireland and Cyprus had the lowest investment shares with less than 0.1% of GDP.
Map 1: Private investment in climate change mitigation
(% of GDP)
Investment in climate change mitigation has evolved quite dynamically across EU countries. For example, in 2005, Latvia and Luxembourg reported investment shares of above 3% of GDP, and 9 further countries invested more than 1% that year (switch to 2005 in Map 1). However, the number of countries with an investment share above 1% has decreased in subsequent years. Nevertheless, the investment in climate change mitigation has grown relative to GDP at EU level, which was mainly driven by the increases in the investment shares of Germany and France. Figure 4 shows the trends in investment in climate change mitigation across EU countries, both in absolute terms and in relation to GDP.
Figure 5 shows the distribution of investment in climate change mitigation by economic activity for each country. In 12 countries, and at EU level, most investment took place in transportation and storage in 2023. In a further 11 countries, electricity and gas supply was the major investor. In Hungary and Poland, most of the investment took place in manufacturing, while construction was the major investor in Romania and Luxembourg.
Figure 6 shows the investment share for each of the 3 main economic activities – transportation and storage, electricity and gas supply, and manufacturing – across EU countries in 2023. In France, Cyprus, Ireland and Bulgaria, transportation and storage accounted for more than 60% of total investment in climate change mitigation. Electricity and gas supply was the major investor in climate change mitigation in Finland, Greece and Croatia, with a share of more than 70%. The country pattern for manufacturing is more skewed; while this activity accounted for more than 60% of total investment in Hungary and for around 30% in Poland and Slovenia, it remained below 20% in all other countries.
Data sources
While the environmental accounts are a multipurpose data system defined in the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA), they do not yet measure some emerging environmental policy themes such as climate change mitigation. Eurostat, in cooperation with the Member States, is working to put in place data requirements on climate change mitigation investments. The first collection of national data using the environmental accounts framework and additional data sources is expected to be disseminated in 2026.
Methodological Notes:
- The data presented refers to private investments, i.e. investments by businesses. The estimates are based on a methodology developed by Eurostat for defining private investments in climate change mitigation, consisting of the following steps: 1) Define what climate change mitigation is. 2) Delineate economic activities relating to climate change mitigation.
- As regards the first point, the climate change mitigation sector is a sub-sector of the whole economy that substantially reduces greenhouse gas emissions by source or from the atmosphere. It reflects the internationally accepted definition by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which is based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The estimation method makes assumptions about the share of investment in climate change mitigation that should be applied to each economic activity.
- As regards the second point, the investments are defined using the structural business statistics concept of ‘investment in tangible goods’. This is more restrictive than the concept of ‘gross fixed capital formation’, which reflects investments in both tangible and intangible goods. Please note that in most countries, the estimates do not cover agriculture, forestry and fishing (statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community - NACE A) and data for this economic activity are therefore not available for the EU aggregate.
In environmental accounts, the data are organised by economic activity, using the NACE classification. This arrangement makes it possible to supplement national accounts with an integrated environmental-economic analysis. The scope encompasses production by all businesses resident in a country, including those operating ships, aircraft and other transportation equipment in other countries.
The NACE Rev. 2 groups used in this article are:
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing — NACE Rev. 2 Section A
- Mining and quarrying — NACE Rev. 2 Section B
- Manufacturing — NACE Rev. 2 Section C
- Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply — NACE Rev. 2 Section D
- Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities — NACE Rev. 2 Section E
- Construction — NACE Rev. 2 Section F
- Transportation and storage — NACE Rev. 2 Section H
- Services (except transportation and storage) — NACE Rev. 2 Sections G to U, excluding H, in other words all remaining economic activities as defined in NACE without transportation and storage
- Total — all NACE activities
Context
In the European Union, Regulation (EU) 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts (including its amendments in 2014 and 2022) has established a common framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of European environmental economic accounts, for the purpose of setting up environmental economic accounts as satellite accounts to the European System of Accounts (ESA). The environmental economic accounts in the Regulation are grouped in the following 6 modules:
- Environmental protection expenditure accounts
More information on these modules can be found through Eurostat’s dedicated section on environment.
The most recent amendment of the Regulation - through Regulation (EU) 2024/3024 - introduced 3 further modules:
- Forest accounts
- Environmental subsidies and similar transfers accounts
- Ecosystem accounts
Preparing the implementation of these new modules is one of the key objectives of the European Strategy for environmental accounts (ESEA) for the period 2024-2028.
In line with the EU’s commitment to tackling environmental challenges and becoming climate-neutral, the environmental accounts are vital for providing better information for supporting Europe's sustainable prosperity and competitiveness and its quality of life as well as for implementing the 8th Environmental Action Programme and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).