This country note 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.
Environment at a Glance: Slovenia
Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia and became a democratic republic on 25 June 1991. The country rapidly joined the international community. The narrowing of the gross domestic product (GDP) per person gap to the upper half of OECD countries has gathered pace.
Slovenia is the second smallest OECD country by size and the fourth smallest by population. It enjoys extraordinarily rich biodiversity and landscapes due to its location at the junction of several ecological systems. Slovenia’s natural endowment has been enhanced by a tradition of close-to-natural forest management and by low-intensity farming, as well as close co-operation with neighbouring countries.
Slovenia’s only domestic fossil fuel deposits include lignite extracted at underground mine at Velenje in the north of the country. Other mineral resources include relatively small quantities of lead, zinc, mercury, uranium and silver. It imports virtually all of its oil and natural gas needs. Indigenous energy sources – in the form of domestic coal, nuclear power, hydropower, and renewables —satisfy about half of Slovenia’s energy needs.
Energy consumption and production-based CO2 emissions have achieved a relative decoupling from real GDP growth. However, their levels remain around their 2000 values. The per person production-based and demand-based (or footprint) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions remain below the OECD average, and have slowly declined since 1995.
Transport is the largest source of emissions, followed by energy industries and agriculture. The land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector has been a net sink since 1990, except in the period 2014-2018. The decrease in CO2 removals was due to large-scale disturbance events, such as an ice storm, bark beetle outbreaks and windthrows, requiring sanitation cutting and increased total harvest in forests (MAFF, 2021[1]).
Slovenia is not particularly well endowed in fossil fuels resources. Indigenous energy sources – in the form of domestic coal, nuclear power, hydropower, and renewables - satisfy slightly more than half of Slovenia’s energy needs (OECD, 2023[2]). Fossil fuels still provided more than half total energy supply in 2023. The share of renewables in the energy mix hasn’t evolved much since 2000. The share of renewables in electricity production has fluctuated and overall slightly increased over the same period.
Emissions of major air pollutant have decreased significantly since 2000, especially of sulphur oxides (SOx). However, except for SOx, emission intensities remain at or above OECD Europe averages, but below OECD wide averages.
Exposure to PM2.5 remains high, well above the 2021 guideline value of 5 µg/m3 recommended by the World Health Organization.
Slovenia is a water-rich country and does not suffer from water stress: even though per person abstractions for public supply are high by OECD standards, total gross freshwater abstractions represent a small percentage of total renewable resources.
Connection rates to wastewater treatment plants remain low by OECD standards, less than 70%, albeit with a large share of this connected to advanced (tertiary) treatment.
Per person municipal waste generation is below the OECD average but above the OECD Europe average. Municipal waste management has improved considerably in the last twenty years. In 2000 almost all waste was sent to landfill. Now almost half is sent to recycling, the rest is mostly composted or incinerated with energy recovery. Data show a break in time series in 2002 and 2013.
Per person domestic material consumption dropped in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and slowly increased since. Material productivity has increased faster than the OECD average after the 2008 financial crisis, and is now in line with it, albeit at lower level than the OECD Europe average.
Domestic material consumption (DMC) decreased significantly in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, and has remained stable since 2017. It increased again since 2021. As in many OECD countries, non-metallic minerals account for the largest share of DMC, driven by construction materials.
Slovenia is situated in the southern part of central Europe where four biogeographic regions meet, forming a large variety of eco-regions and habitats. Slovenia is one of the most forested countries in the OECD, with more than 60% of land being used for forestry. There are 514 natural and anthropogenic habitat types that have been identified and documented. Around 15 000 animal species, 6 000 plant species and 5 000 species of fungi have been identified and documented. The degree of endemism is high. Besides agriculture, forestry is the principal land use activity affecting biodiversity (CBD, 2022[3]).
The country has already largely surpassed the 2030 target to protect 30% of terrestrial land under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF Target 3). More efforts are needed to achieve the same target for marine and coastal areas. Only a limited number of sites have strict management objectives (IUCN categories I and II).
This section shows selected policy instruments based on data available for most OECD countries and does not provide a complete overview of countries’ policy mix to achieve their environment-related objectives. Interpretation should consider the country specific context.
At around 3%, the share of environmentally-related tax revenue in GDP is higher than the OECD and OECD-Europe averages. Like in most countries, the most of these taxes are energy based, followed by transport and pollution.
Most of the support for fossil fuels in Slovenia is in the form of consumer support to end-users and industries. The refund on excise duty for diesel in commercial transport represents nearly half of all fossil fuel support. Slovenia’s support scheme for combined heat and power (CHP) plants and renewable plants (RES) encourages the use of natural gas in CHP plants through feed-in-tariffs, which explains the rising support for natural gas. The draft National Energy and Climate Plan (NCEP) states that subsidies that encourage inefficient use of fossil fuels and those that are inconsistent with the objectives of reducing GHG emissions will be gradually reduced. The Operational Programme for Reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions until 2020 (OP GHG 2020) also aims at gradually cutting fossil fuel support. During 2022, some of these efforts were halted or reduced as energy prices rose. In 2022, the government enacted several plans to cap energy rates charged, particularly with electricity and natural gas (OECD, 2023[2]).
In total, 81.9% of GHG emissions in Slovenia were subject to a positive Net Effective Carbon Rate (ECR) in 2023. Explicit carbon prices in Slovenia consist of emissions trading system (ETS) permit prices and carbon taxes, which cover 38.4% of GHG emissions in CO2 eq. With roughly 36.4% of total GHG emissions, coverage is largest for ETS. Fuel excise taxes, an implicit form of carbon pricing, cover 52.6% of emissions in 202. About 70% of GHG emissions have a Net ECR above EUR 60 per tonne of CO2 eq., a mid-range estimate of current carbon costs. Net Effective Carbon Rates are highest in the road transport sector, which accounts for 32.8% of the country's total GHG emissions. The Net ECR is on average positive in all sectors (OECD, 2024[4]).
The share of environmentally-related government R&D budget in total budget has been increasing since 2000 and is high by OECD standards.
Slovenia is a minor player in environmentally-related inventions, and their share in total inventions is below the OECD average.
Slovenia’s development co-operation focuses on its near neighbourhood in the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe, including by sharing its experience of accessing the European Union (EU). Over half of Slovenia’s official development assistance (ODA) is delivered multilaterally, and the European Union receives almost all of its multilateral ODA. Slovenia’s total official development assistance (ODA) decreased in 2024 to USD 164.4 million (preliminary data), representing 0.23% of gross national income (GNI).
In 2022-23, Slovenia committed 20.6% of its total bilateral allocable ODA in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions, up from 12.9% in 2020-21. The DAC average was 39% in 2022-23. Twenty per cent of screened bilateral allocable ODA focused on environmental issues as a principal objective, compared with the DAC average of 9.6%. Seventeen per cent of total bilateral allocable ODA focused on climate change overall, up from 8.7% in 2020-21 (the DAC average was 34.8%). Slovenia had a greater focus on mitigation (22.3%) than on adaptation (19.9%) in 2022-23. Three per cent of screened bilateral allocable ODA focused on biodiversity overall, up from 0.2% in 2020-21 (the DAC average was 7.6%). (OECD, 2025[5]).
References
[3] CBD (2022), Country profiles: Slovenia, https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile?country=si.
[6] Hockings, M. and E. al (2006), Evaluating Effectiveness. A framework for assessing management effectiveness of protected areas. 2nd Edition, IUCN, https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/documents/PAG-014.pdf.
[1] MAFF (2021), Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, Progress Report on LULUCF Actions SLOVENIA, https://www.gov.si/assets/ministrstva/MKGP/PODROCJA/GOZDARSTVO/LULUCF_2020_progress_report_SI.pdf.
[5] OECD (2025), Development Co-operation Profiles, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/development-co-operation-profiles_04b376d7-en/slovenia_af9db37d-en.html.
[4] OECD (2024), Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2024: Gearing Up to Bring Emissions Down, OECD Series on Carbon Pricing and Energy Taxation, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b44c74e6-en.
[2] OECD (2023), OECD Inventory of Support Measures for Fossil Fuels: Country Notes, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5a3efe65-en.
National data on land take and Corine Land Cover are also available at: http://kazalci.arso.gov.si/en/teme/soil-and-land-use
OECD (2012), OECD Environmental Performance Reviews: Slovenia 2012, OECD Environmental Performance Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264169265-en
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