Air emissions accounts
Air emissions accounts present flows of gaseous materials and particles (six greenhouse gases including CO2 and seven air pollutants) that are generated by the national economy and released into the atmosphere.
These include sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC), methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO), carbone dioxide (total CO2, climate-effective: from fossil sources, from other sources, climate neutral: from biogenous sources), nitrous oxide (N2O), ammonia (NH3), particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) as well as fluorinated gases (F-gases), hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), perfluorocarbons (PFC) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) - including nitrogen trifluoride (NF3).
Air emissions accounts are conceptually embedded in the environmental economic accounts. They offer a detailed breakdown according to 64 emitting economic sectors plus private households as they are delimited in the national accounts. In accordance with the national accounts, the AEA follow the concept of residency (national principle). As a result, air emissions from resident economic entities are included even if they occur outside the territory (e.g. resident airlines operating in the rest of the world).
AEA supplement national inventories on air emissions as they are established within the framework of international conventions and reporting obligations: UNFCCC, CLRTAP and UNECE. The inventories follow the territorial concept (air emissions occurred on the territory, regardless of the origin of the polluter - domestic principle) and are structured according to technically delimited emission sources. It follows that the AEA total amounts differ from those of the national inventories. Therefore, the AEA total quantities are coordinated with the inventories by means of so-called 'transition items'.
As a module of the environmental economic accounts, the AEA has to be submitted to Eurostat since 2013 in accordance with Regulation (EU) No. 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts.