In this NERI Research InBrief no. 83, NERI economist Paul Goldrick-Kelly compares differing trends in environmental protection investment for sustainability in the Republic of Ireland (ROI), Austria and Sweden.
Persson et al. (2022) have shown we face a series of connected ecological crises that will require major economic and social changes. Significant investment on the part of states and other entities will be an essential component of these efforts. The EU’s (2023) Environmental Protection Expenditure Accounts (EPEA) measure funds directed to preventing and reducing or eliminating pollutants and other forms of environmental degradation. This InBrief uses these investment data to compare investment efforts in three comparable EU states, Austria, The Republic of Ireland (ROI) and Sweden.
The data show that Sweden had consistent real growth in aggregate environmental investment between 2010 and 2019, whereas investment in ROI and Austria declined in the first years of the decade. In ROI by 2019, investment had slightly increased over 2010 levels, while this hadn’t occurred in Austria. When adjusted for respective price levels, Irish investment spending per person was significantly below comparator levels in 2019, particularly Sweden’s. However, this was explained by the relative lack of corporate investment spend to either produce for market or own use, as governmental expenditure exceeded Swedish and Austrian spending in real terms.