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Environmental expenditure data provide an important basis for developing effective and efficient environmental policies. Knowledge of trends in investments and current expenditure made by enterprises, municipalities and state budgets as well as their sources of funding helps: to evaluate whether enough resources are devoted to environmental problems considered as priorities in the national strategies for environmental protection; to identify possible financing gaps and opportunities to increase the efficiency of environmental expenditure; to identify trade-offs between different priorities, e.g. between new investments and maintenance of existing capital assets; and to better target government interventions to influence financial flows to the environmental sector.
The methodological framework for the collection and analysis of data on environmental expenditure in EECCA builds upon the OECD methodology for Pollution Abatement and Control (PAC) Expenditure. The OECD methodology is also compatible with the Eurostat methodology. In the previous Work Programme, these projects were supported mainly by Denmark and implemented mostly by COWI consulting.
Several expenditure studies of individual EECCA countries and regions have been carried out, including Georgia and Russia (Novgorod and Pskov Oblasts). Further studies were conducted in Armenia, the Kyrgyz Republic and Moldova. Data collection revealed important methodological, accounting and definitional differences that often make it difficult to interpret figures, develop continuous time trends and conduct cross-country comparisons. This experience underlines the need for reform of environmental expenditure data collection systems in EECCA in line with internationally-recognised standards, such as those of OECD and Eurostat.
In Georgia, a pilot project, implemented within the OECD EAP Task Force framework, with financial support of the Danish EPA (DANCEE-Programme), resulted in implementation of an international state-of-the-art system for regular collection and dissemination of environmental expenditure data.
Similar institutional assistance has been launched in Ukraine and the Kyrgyz Republic (English, Russian) as part of the 2004-2006 EAP Task Force Work Programme. This work aims at reforming the system of environmental expenditure data collection system in line with the OECD/Eurostat standards.
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