Environment at a Glance in the EU Eastern Partnership Countries

1. The EaP region at a glance

Beginning in 1991, the EaP countries enjoyed years of strong economic growth. Energy efficiency measures and reduction in the share of oil in energy have contributed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of GDP. More efficient water use has resulted in lower abstraction levels per person and less wastewater discharge. However, growth slowed after the economic crisis of 2008-09. The EaP economies faced repeated downturns, which included energy shortages, political uncertainty, and trade obstacles that challenged regional economic development and environmental improvement.

In 2022, the EaP countries plunged into a new wave of geopolitical crisis as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Russian invasion has inflicted tremendous human losses and damage to the Ukrainian economy. The associated humanitarian crisis has led to a large number of displaced people both within Ukraine and abroad. The latest estimation of the reconstruction cost in Ukraine, released by the Word Bank in February 2024, amounts to USD 486 billion (World Bank, 2024[1]). The war also affected the EaP countries' economic development and trade relations.

The war against Ukraine has not spared the environment, natural resource-based assets, or infrastructure. The shelling of forests, land and marine ecosystems, industrial facilities, transport infrastructures and houses, as well as water, sanitation, and waste management infrastructures, has caused widespread and severe damage, already estimated by the Ukrainian authorities to be over USD 56 billion (Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, 2024[2]), with immediate and long-term consequences for human health and ecosystems.

This webbook builds on indicators available in the OECD and other international databases to monitor progress towards green growth and environmental performance in the EaP countries. It combines some central elements of the OECD Green Growth Indicators framework and the OECD Core Set of Environmental Indicators. The report also builds on the previous work on applying the OECD set of indicators in the EaP countries. In particular, it builds on the work from the report “Monitoring Ukraine’s Progress towards Green Economy using Green Growth Indicators” and a web platform “Towards Green Transformation of the Republic of Moldova: Monitoring progress based on the OECD green growth indicators that were developed as part of the EU-funded EU4Environment: Green Economy Programme.

This report is a first step in presenting available indicators for EaP countries to support the monitoring and progress towards the green transition. It will be improved and complemented as more data and indicators become available.

Economic Development

As part of an ambitious economic liberalisation effort in the 1990s and early 2000s, the EaP countries allowed prices to rise more freely, stopped issuing preferential credits to state enterprises, pursued land privatisation, removed export controls, and exerted less control on interest rates. Their economies grew steadily in the 2000s due mainly to structural and market reforms that improved the business environment, strengthened public finance systems, upgraded infrastructure and liberalised trade. However, growth slowed after the economic crisis of 2008-09. Subsequent repeated downturns, which included energy shortages, political uncertainty and trade obstacles, challenged regional economic development and environmental improvement.

Agriculture continues to be an important sector in the region, and most EaP countries depend on natural resource extraction, including mining and fossil fuels, for a significant portion of their economy. The share of value added in the services sector has been increasing over the years. However, agriculture still accounts for 12% of value added in Armenia and Ukraine and over 11% in Moldova, compared to the EU/OECD average of about 2%. The significance of agriculture in Moldova and Ukraine is reflected in land use patterns, with both countries showing nearly 60% of the overall area dedicated to permanent crops and arable land.

The EaP countries are highly dependent on remittances (accounting for over 10% of GDP in Armenia and Georgia and up to 16% in Moldova) and with a large informal economic sector (about 50% in Armenia and Georgia and about 30% in Moldova). Despite strong growth in GDP per person since the mid-2000s and some progress in reducing poverty, the EaP countries remain among the poorest in Europe (Figure 2.2).

Following the European Council’s decision in 2023 to grant Moldova and Ukraine candidate status to join the European Union, Georgia’s European perspective status and Ukraine’s application for OECD membership, these countries accelerated the alignment of their legal framework with the EU acquis.

Measurement framework to track progress

The green growth indicators framework, developed by the OECD in 2011 to support the implementation of its Green Growth Strategy, has been rapidly adopted by the EaP countries as an internationally recognised benchmark for monitoring green transition. Green growth indicators help track progress towards a green economy, facilitate informed decision-making, demonstrate accountability, raise public awareness of the links between economic growth and the environment, and compare progress between countries (Box 1.1).

Box 1.1. The OECD Green Growth Indicators and OECD Core Set of Environmental Indicators

The OECD green growth indicators are a measurement framework to track progress towards greening the economies and decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation. It captures four areas of green growth:

• Natural asset base

• Environmental and resource productivity

• Environmental quality of life

• Economic opportunities and policy responses

The four main areas of green growth are complemented by indicators of socio-economic context, which provide important background information.

The OECD Core Set of Environmental Indicators is essential for monitoring environmental progress, evaluating policies, informing the public, and tracking the course towards sustainable development. The OECD pioneered the development of international environmental indicators and used them regularly in its Country's Environmental Performance Reviews and analysis work.

Source: OECD (2014), Green Growth Indicators 2014, OECD Green Growth Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264202030-en. OECD green growth indicators highlights (2017). OECD key environmental indicators, https://www.oecd.org/env/indicators-modelling-outlooks/37551205.pdf.

Overview of selected indicators

The table below lists the selected indicators available in the OECD database for the EaP countries and is presented in this webbook.

Table 1.1. List of Indicators

Section	Indicator	Unit
Socio-economic context	Real GDP per person	USD
Value added by sector (agriculture, industry, services)	% of total value added
Population by age group	% of total
Land use	% of land area
Natural asset base	Land cover by type	% of land area
	Net change of natural vegetated land	% of natural land
	Built-up area per person	Square metres per person
	Gain of artificial surfaces	% of artificial surfaces
	Total freshwater: Gross abstractions	% of internal resources
	Total freshwater: Gross abstractions (water stress)	% of total renewable resources
Environmental and resource productivity	Production-based CO2 productivity	GDP per unit of energy-related CO2 emissions, US dollars per unit of CO2
	Energy productivity	GDP per unit of TES
	Energy consumption, breakdown by sector	% of total
	Renewable energy by source
	Renewable energy supply	% of total energy supply
	Renewable electricity	% total electricity generation
	Non-energy material productivity	GDP per unit of DMC
	Material footprint and domestic material consumption per person	Tonnes per person
	Municipal waste generated per person
	Municipal waste treatment, by type of treatment
Environmental quality of life	Mean population exposure to PM2.5
	Mortality from exposure to selected pollutants	per one million inhabitants
	Welfare costs of premature mortalities from exposure to selected pollutants	% of GDP
	Annual surface temperature change	Degrees Celsius
	Population exposure to hot days	% of population, by weeks
	Population exposure to icing days	% of population, by weeks
	Population exposure to river flooding	% of population
	Forest area exposure to wildfire danger	% of tree-covered areas exposed
	Population with access to improved drinking water sources	% of total population
	Population with access to improved sanitation	% of total population
Economic opportunities and policy responses	Development of environment-related technologies	Inventions per 1 000 000 inhabitants
	FFS by fuel
	FFS by beneficiary
	Terrestrial protected areas, by IUCN category

Data availability

The indicators shown reflect data availability in the EaP countries, highlighting remaining data gaps and the need for higher quality data at the environment-economy nexus, expanding the number of available indicators and ensuring regular data collection. The report shows that efforts remain for EaP countries to improve their environmental information systems and produce reliable and coherent indicators. As a result, some sections only present a reduced set of indicators that do not allow a complete overview of the green transition, particularly for biodiversity and circular economy indicators, as well as on economic opportunities and policy responses. Due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since 2022, it is important to note that the cut-off date for Ukraine’s data included in this report is 2021.

The underlying data are sourced from OECD and IEA databases and are available on the OECD Explorer platform. They build on data available from official OECD and international sources (e.g. Eurostat, FAO, IAE, UNFCCC, EMEP, UNEP-IRP, UNEP-WCMC). In particular, the report builds on close co-operation with the work of the UNECE Joint Task Force on Environmental Statistics and Indicators. Some data are produced by the OECD Secretariat using earth observation and geospatial data sources, and calculation methods developed in consultation with countries through their participation in the Working Party on Environmental Information (WPEI) (e.g. exposure to air pollution, changes and conversions in land cover, protected areas).

Updating frequency and timeliness

The updating frequency and timeliness vary from one dataset to another and, hence, from one indicator and graphic to another. The graphics are updated automatically as new data become available in OECD.stat. The updating frequency and timeliness of the OECD Data Explorer datasets depend, in turn, on the availability of updates in the primary data sources. Work in countries and at the international level to improve the timeliness of major environmental data continues.

Comparability and interpretation

The indicators used in this webbook are of varying significance for different countries. Care should be taken when interpreting the indicators and when making international comparisons. Issues to be considered include:

• National averages can mask variations within countries (in scale across countries, in paths of economic development and available resources).

• There is a level of uncertainty associated with the data sources and measurement methods on which the indicators rely. Differences between two countries’ indicators are thus not always statistically significant. When countries are clustered around a relatively narrow range of outcomes, it may be misleading to establish an order of ranking.

• For some indicators, showing the direction and magnitude of change over time for a given country is more meaningful than cross-country comparisons, and trends in the indicators’ value are more important than their absolute value.

Different denominators are used parallel to balance the message conveyed. Many indicators are expressed on a per-person and per-unit-of-GDP basis. The population estimates used include persons who have been residents of a country for one year or more, regardless of their citizenship. The GDP figures are expressed in USD, at 2015 prices and purchasing power parities (PPPs). Definitions and metadata can be found in the glossary at the end of this report.

EU support towards a green transition in Eastern Partnership countries

The EaP Economic and Investment Plan (EIP) aims to mobilise EUR 2.3 billion, leveraging up to EUR 17 billion to stimulate jobs and growth, connectivity, and the green and digital transition, thus directly contributing to the objectives of the European Green Deal and EU’s Global Gateway Strategy (European Economic and Social Committee, 2021[3]). The EIP foresees leveraging at least EUR 750 million to upgrade water supply and sanitation, implement measures identified in the river basin management plans, and at least EUR 100 million to speed up circular economy uptake and support decarbonisation efforts. Improving waste management, including prevention, reuse and recycling, will help create new decent jobs and reduce imports of raw materials. The plan will focus on plastic, construction, and electronic waste (European Commission, European Anti-Fraud Office, 2021[4]).

EU-funded regional initiatives, twinning, TAIEX, and bilateral portfolios have played a key role in enabling progress towards climate and environmental resilience. Also, the bilateral portfolios increasingly include measures in this area. Through the Neighbourhood Investment Platform, the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P) and other blending and guarantee instruments, the EU is leveraging funding for green investments. The Ukraine Facility is a dedicated instrument allowing the European Union to provide Ukraine with up to €50 billion in stable and predictable financial support from 2024 to 2027.

The EU-funded EU4Environment Programme was launched in 2019 during a dynamic period of policy development in the five Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries. Since then, it has aimed to help these countries pursue a path of green economic transformation through two sister programmes - “EU4Environment – Green Economy” and “EU4Environment – Water and Data”. These programmes have provided environmental, economic, and statistical expertise to help each country preserve its natural capital and increase well-being by supporting environment-related action. The programmes demonstrated and unlocked opportunities for greener growth, provided mechanisms to better manage environmental risks and impacts, and improved access to environmental data for sustainable water use. They integrate greener decision-making, circular economy, smart environmental regulations, ecosystem protection, regional knowledge sharing and integrated water resources management into a cohesive framework. The implementing partners of “EU4Environment – Green Economy” are the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and the World Bank. The implementing partners of “EU4Environment – Water and Data” are the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), Environment Agency Austria (UBA), International Office for Water (OiEau) (France), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

The EU4Environment programmes contribute to achieving the commitments set in the countries’ Association Agreements or enhanced cooperation agreements where they exist and build into its activities the provisions of the EU Green Deal as a benchmark for national policy design. The programmes also support Ukraine by incorporating green principles into the Post-War Recovery and Development Plan, which the government is developing.

This webbook builds upon the collaboration between the two pillars of EU4Environment. It highlights the tangible progress achieved by the EaP countries in greening their economies over the past decade, as well as the remaining challenges. It is an innovative and interactive tool for decision-makers, experts, and the general public. It provides access to the latest available data to monitor key environmental and green growth indicators in the EaP countries. It can be used as an instrument for mainstream environmental reporting to international standards within EaP countries, tracking performance against similar countries, and identifying focus areas for policy reform.