Emissions to air by the Dutch economy; national accounts

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Dutch economy Greenhouse gases (climate change) N2O (mln kgs) Greenhouse gases (climate change) CH4 (mln kgs) Greenhouse gases (climate change) Greenhouse gas equivalents (x mln)
Total Dutch economy 25.4 633.0 182,020
Total private households 1.2 19.2 29,748
Transport activity by private households 0.7 1.8 14,770
Other private households 0.5 17.3 14,979
A-U All economic activities 24.1 546.4 149,953
A Agriculture, forestry and fishing 18.1 498.7 27,470
B-E Industry (no construction), energy 3.1 39.5 80,623
B Mining and quarrying 0.1 12.6 1,688
C Manufacturing 1.7 16.5 40,304
10-12 Manufacture of food and beverages 0.0 0.9 4,165
13-15 Man. of textile-, leatherproducts 0.0 0.0 151
16-18 Man. wood en paperprod., printing 0.0 0.1 839
16 Manufacture of wood products 0.0 0.0 93
17 Manufacture of paper 0.0 0.1 697
18 Printing and reproduction 0.0 0.0 50
19 Manufacture of coke and petroleum 0.0 0.9 10,321
20-21 Chemistry and pharmaceuticals 1.6 13.7 16,878
20 Manufacture of chemicals 1.6 13.7 16,759
21 Manufacture of pharmaceuticals 0.0 0.0 119
22-23 Man. plastics and constructionprod 0.0 0.2 1,480
22 Manufacture rubber, plastic products 0.0 0.0 251
23 Manufacture of building materials 0.0 0.1 1,229
24-25 Man. of basic metals and -products 0.0 0.4 5,310
24 Manufacture of basic metals 0.0 0.3 4,807
25 Manufacture of metal products 0.0 0.1 503
26-27 Elektrical and electron. Industry 0.0 0.0 201
26 Manufacture of electronic products 0.0 0.0 84
27 Manufacture of electric equipment 0.0 0.0 117
28 Manufacture of machinery n.e.c. 0.0 0.1 294
29-30 Transport equipment 0.0 0.0 216
31-33 Other manufacturing and repair 0.0 0.1 449
D Electricity and gas supply 0.3 3.3 29,063
E Water supply and waste management 1.0 7.3 9,569
F Construction 0.1 0.2 3,753
G-I Trade, transport, hotels, catering 1.0 1.8 29,348
G Wholesale and retail trade 0.1 0.4 3,565
H Transportation and storage 0.9 1.1 24,900
49 Land transport 0.3 0.5 6,119
50 Water transport 0.2 0.5 7,789
51 Air transport 0.3 0.1 10,273
52 Warehousing, services for transport 0.0 0.1 561
53 Postal and courier activities 0.0 0.0 158
I Accommodation and food serving 0.0 0.3 883
J Information and communication 0.0 0.0 158
K Financial institutions 0.0 0.1 353
L Renting, buying, selling real estate 0.0 0.1 240
M-N Business services 0.1 0.3 3,426
M Other specialised business services 0.0 0.1 735
N Renting and other business support 0.1 0.2 2,691
O-Q Government and care 1.7 5.4 3,805
O Public administration and services 1.6 4.8 2,043
P Education 0.0 0.2 554
Q Health and social work activities 0.0 0.4 1,208
R-U Culture, recreation, other services 0.0 0.2 775
R Culture, sports and recreation 0.0 0.1 406
S Other service activities 0.0 0.1 369
T Activities of households 0.0 0.0 0
U Extraterritorial organisations 0.0 0.0 0
Landfill sites (waste dumps) 0.0 67.5 2,193
Source: CBS.
Explanation of symbols

Table explanation


This table presents the air emission accounts, as a part of the annual environmental accounts compiled by Statistics Netherlands.
The air emission accounts describe the emissions of air pollutants and gases as a result of Dutch economic activities. This is including the emissions of residents abroad and excluding emissions of non-residents in the Netherlands. The emissions of the substances are allocated to the various economic activities. Emissions from natural sources are excluded as these emissions are not related to economic activities. In this table, the emission of pollutants and gases from stationary sources (such as power plants) as well as mobile sources (such as road transport) are allocated to the different industries or households. Included are CO (carbon monoxide); Total CO2 (carbon dioxide); CO2 (carbon dioxide) excluding emissions from biomass; CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions from biomass; CH4 (methane);
N2O (nitrous oxide also known as laughing gas); NOx (nitrogen oxides (diversity)); SO2 (sulphur dioxide); NH3 (ammonia); PM10 (particulate matter with a diameter less than 10 micrometres); NMVOC (volatile organic compounds excluding methane (CH4)). The environmental accounts are compiled according to the concepts (such as the resident principle) and definitions of the national accounts, making it possible to quantify the environmental effects of the economic activities for the Netherlands in a consistent manner.

Data available from: 1990

Status of the figures:
Figures for the latest year are provisional. In order to obtain a consistent time series, the complete data set is (re)calculated every year.
The air emission accounts data are consistent in time and in compliance with the Dutch national accounts. The alignment between the environmental accounts and the national accounts however, takes place using a wide variety of sources. This means that, although every year the system required to perform the various calculations are similar and consistent, variation can occur due to changes in particular sources. As a result changes in emission factors from the emission inventory (pollutant release and transfer register, PRTR) and changing traffic and transport statistics affect the full time series of the air emission accounts. In order to obtain consistent time series, every year the entire time series are (re)calculated, enabling that latest insights in the data are captured.

Changes as of November 2024:
Data for 2023 have been added. Data for previous years are adjusted according to the revision policy (see: Status of the figures).

When will new figures be published?
New annual figures will be published in November.

Description topics

Greenhouse gases (climate change)
Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere retain part of the solar heat that reaches the earth. The increased concentration of greenhouse gases means more heat is retained and the temperature of the earth's surface rises.
This is called the 'enhanced greenhouse effect'. The most important greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), laughing gas (N2O), HFCs, PFCs and SF6.
N2O
Laughing gas/dinitrogen oxide.
N2O is formed during various chemical conversion processes, among which during the warming up phase of catalytic converters, as a result of incomplete conversion of nitrogen oxides (NOx) into nitrogen (N2).
Greenhouse gas (causes the temperature of the earth's atmosphere to rise gradually).
CH4
Methane (= natural gas).
Among other causes CH4 is formed by incomplete combustion of fuels, leakage from the natural gas network, and by fermentation.
Greenhouse gas (causes the temperature of the earth's atmosphere to rise gradually).
Greenhouse gas equivalents
A measure of the degree to which a substance contributes to the greenhouse effect. A greenhouse gas equivalent equals the effect that the emission of 1 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) has, as a reference. The emission of 1 kg of methane (CH4) is equal to 25 greenhouse gas equivalents, and the emission of 1 kg of nitrous oxide gas (N2O) equal to 298 greenhouse gas equivalents.
The fluorine (chlorine) gases each have a high CO2 equivalent, but because the emitted quantities are relatively small, their contribution to the national total is small. The fluorine (chlorine) gases are only included in the total, but they are not specified.