Environment at a Glance Indicators

Estonia

This country profile features selected environmental indicators from the OECD Core Set, building on harmonised datasets available on OECD Data Explorer. The indicators reflect major environmental issues, including climate, air quality, freshwater resources, waste and the circular economy, and biodiversity. Differences with national data sources can occur due to delays in data treatment and publication, or due to different national definitions and measurement methods. The OECD is working with countries and other international organisations to further improve the indicators and the underlying data.

Context

Estonia is a small, sparsely populated country, with an open, market-based economy that has a well-skilled workforce and a business-friendly environment. The country has experienced strong economic growth although gross domestic product (GDP) per person remains lower than the OECD average. Estonia is notable for its pioneering digitalisation of public services. It is endowed with large oil shale1 reserves and abundant forestry and water resources.

Estonia is located in northeast Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland, between Latvia and the Russian Federation. Estonia restored its independence in 1991. Since then, the country has adopted market reforms and has joined both the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2004.

International trade plays a significant role in the economy. The country is a net exporter of several energy sources, notably primary solid biofuels, electricity and shale oil produced from oil shale. However, the country fully relies on imports for the provision of liquid transport fuels, such as diesel and gasoline, and natural gas. Forests cover about half of Estonia’s territory and forestry products also represent a significantly higher share of national exports than in most OECD member countries.

Climate change

Energy mix

Air quality

Air emissions

Freshwater resources

Intensity of use of freshwater resources

Waste, materials and circular economy

Municipal waste

Material consumption

Biodiversity

Protected areas

References and further reading

OECD (2017), OECD Environmental Performance Reviews: Estonia 2017, OECD Environmental Performance Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264268241-en.

Note

← 1.  Oil shale is an energy-rich sedimentary rock which contains organic matter in the form of kerogen, a waxy hydrocarbon-rich material regarded as a precursor of petroleum. It can be either burned for heat and power generation or used for producing liquid fuels. In IEA statistics, oil shale is aggregated with coal when measuring primary energy supply.