• Methods and Projects
• Standards and Classifications

• Standardised Methodological Report

Minimise complete Methodological Report Complete Methodological Report Queried fields

Cuentas medioambientales: Cuenta de flujos físicos de la energía

• 1Contact
  • 1.1Contact organisation
    National Statistics Institute of Spain
    
  • 1.5Contact mail address

    Avenida de Manoteras 50-52 - 28050 Madrid

    
    
• 2Metadata update
  • 2.1Metadata last certified
    14/11/2024
  • 2.2Metadata last posted
    20/11/2023
  • 2.3Metadata last update
    14/11/2024
• 3Statistical presentation
  • 3.1Data description

    The Environmental Accounts (EA) are a synthesis statistical operation with the general objective of integrating environmental information in the central system of Spanish National Accounts, following the methodology of the United Nations' System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA), which constitutes the conceptual framework of the EA.

    They include a group of satellite accounts compiled using accounting formats that are applicable to different sectorial and territorial scopes, with a great amount of physical data. Spanish National Accounts allow expanding the analysis of similar concepts, classifications and regulations without overloading the central system.

    It is an essential tool for the analysis of the interrelation between the environment and the economy in general, and specifically, for the assessment of sustainable development through the design and construction of Sustainable Development Indicators, as well as monitoring political actions in terms of national and international environment.

    The Physical Energy Flow Account ( PEFA) records the flows of energy, in physical units , fron the initial extractin or capture of energy resources form the environment into the economy, the flows of energy within economy in the form of the supply and use of energy by industries and households; and finally, the flows of energy back to environment . It also records flows of energy fromo the economic systen ant the rest of world ( imports and exports).   

    The main source for compiling  PEFA are the energy statistics collected by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge 

     

     

     

     

  • 3.2Classification system
    • Clasificaciones utilizadas

      The activities and sectors classifications that are used are coherent with the European System of Accounts (ESA)

      
      
      

      
      
      • Sectors ( columns of the tables)
      
      

      
      
      

      The sectors are: economicas activities ( industries), households, accumulation, rest of world and the environment.

      
      
      

      The industries are classified according to the A*64 classification included in the Commission Regulation (EU) No. 715/2010, of 10 August 2010. The A*64 classification is the result of aggregating the divisions in NACE Rev. 2, which corresponds to CNAE2009 in the case of Spain.

      
      
      

      
      
      • Energy materials( rows of the tables)
      
      

      
      
      

      The energy materials are classified in three groups:

      
      
      

                Natural inputs/Products/ Residuals

      
      
      

      This classification is listed in the Commision Delegated Regulation ( EU) 2016/172 of 24 november 2015, supplementing Regulation ( EU) Nº 691/2011 of the European Parliament and of the council as regards specification of the energy products.

      
      
      

      http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32016R0172&from=EN

      
      
      

       

      
      
      

       

  • 3.3Sector coverage

    The Physical Flows Account have the same limits as the European System of Accounts (ESA)
    http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32013R0549:ES:NOT

    As the Spanish National Accounts, the Physical Energy Accounts also follow the residence principle. They therefore count the energy use by the activities of all resident units, regardless of the geographical location where those emissions actually take place.

  • 3.4Statistical concepts and definitions
    • Domestic energy consumption
      Measures energy consumption used directly by the economy, it corresponds to the sum of domestic extractions of natural energy inputs and imports of energy products and energy residuals (waste for energetic use), deducts exports of energy products and residuals.
      
      For the total economy, Net domestic energy use and Domestic energy consumption differ only by energy from waste, changes in inventories and produced assets and statistical differences.
    • Energy Intensity
      It is the net domestic energy use to produce a unit of value added by the country¿s economy or an economic activity. It is a measure of energy efficiency; if the intensity decreases, it indicates that less energy was needed to reach the same level of product as in previous years, therefore energy use was less intensive.
    • Net domestic energy use
      Corresponds to the final energy consumption by end users, energy sectors¿ own use, losses during transformation (for example, from oil or gas into electricity) and distribution of energy, as well as those amounts of international aviation and international marine bunkers consumed by resident units.
      
      For the total economy, Net domestic energy use and Domestic energy consumption differ only by energy from waste, changes in inventories and produced assets and statistical differences.
  • 3.5Statistical unit

    As they are satellite accounts, the same units as in the Spanish National Accounts are used, that is, the units collected in the European System of Accounts (ESA).

    For further information consult ESA:
    http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32013R0549:ES:NOT

  • 3.6Statistical population

    Environmental Accounts combine data from several different statistical sources. The concept of statistical population cannot be strictly applied in this context.

  • 3.7Reference area

    Environmental Accounts cover the entire national territory.

    The Physical  Energfy Flows Account must be consistent with the Spanish National Accounts. Spanish National Accounts define the national economy as the set of activities and transactions of the resident economic agents that focus on the economic national territory. Some transactions of these units are carried out outside of the national economic territory and other transactions within this territory are carried out by non-resident units. Therefore, in Physical Energy Flows Account as well as Spanish National Accounts, it is necessary to apply the residence principle. In agreement with this principle, theenergy used by the units residing outside of the national territory shall be considered inputs of the national economy and the emissions generated by units not residing in the national economic territory shall be excluded from the accounting framework.

  • 3.8Time coverage

    Physical Energy Flows Account is compiled annually.

    The accounts are available for years 2015 to 2022.

  • 3.9Base period

    Base : The results correspond to the 2024 Benchmark Revision

     

• 4Unit of measure
  • 4.1Unit of measure

    
    Terajoule (TJ)

    TJ/M€= Terajoules per Million Euros (GDP)

    TJ/1,000 inhabitants = Terajoules per 1,000 inhabitants

     

• 5Reference period
  • 5.1Reference period

    The accounting period is the natural year.

    Data referred to the period: Anual A: 2021

     

• 6Institutional mandate
  • 6.1Legal acts and other agreements

    The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. The National Statistical Plan 2009-2012 was approved by the Royal Decree 1663/2008. It contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15  December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024. (Statistics of the State Administration).

    
    

    European Parliament and Council Regulation (EU) No. 691/2011, of 6 July 2011, regarding the European economic environmental accounts, constitutes the reference framework of common accounting concepts, definitions, classifications and norms intended for the compilation of Environmental Accounts.

    This regulation is available in:
    https://www.ine.es/normativa/leyes/UE/minine.htm#30090

    TheThe Regulation (EU) Nº 538/2014 amends the previous regulation to introduce a module concerninf Physical Flows Accounts. The regulation is avalaible in:

    http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32014R0538&from=EN

    In each data transmission to the Commission , the UE  Member States  will provide annual data for years n-2, n-1 and n, "n" being the reference year. The Member States can provide date back to 2014. 

  • 6.2Data sharing
    The exchanges of information needed to elaborate statistics between the INE and the rest of the State statistical offices (Ministerial Departments, independent bodies and administrative bodies depending on the State General Administration), or between these offices and the Autonomic statistical offices, are regulated in the LFEP (Law of the Public Statistic Function). This law also regulates the mechanisms of statistical coordination, and concludes cooperation agreements between the different offices when necessary.
    
• 7Confidentiality
  • 7.1Confidentiality - policy

    The Statistical Law No. 12/1989 specifies that the INE cannot publish, or make otherwise available, individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society

    
    
  • 7.2Confidentiality - data treatment
    INE provides information on the protection of confidentiality at all stages of the statistical process: INE questionnaires for the operations in the national statistical plan include a legal clause protecting data under statistical confidentiality. Notices prior to data collection announcing a statistical operation notify respondents that data are subject to statistical confidentiality at all stages. For data processing, INE employees have available the INE data protection handbook, which specifies the steps that should be taken at each stage of processing to ensure reporting units' individual data are protected. The microdata files provided to users are anonymised.
    

    Environmental Accounts is a statistical operation included in the National Statistics Plan, therefore subject to the Law on the Public Statistical Function of 9 May 1989, hence its data is protected by Statistical Secrecy in all stages of its compilation

    https://www.ine.es/dyngs/IOE/en/operacion.htm?id=1259942700133

• 8Release policy
  • 8.1Release calendar

    The advance release calendar that shows the precise release dates for the coming year is disseminated in the last quarter of each year.

    
    
  • 8.2Release calendar access

    The calendar is disseminated on the INEs Internet website (Publications Calendar)

    
    
  • 8.3User access

    The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website (www.ine.es/en) almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in the European Statistics Code of Practice

    
    
• 9Frequency of dissemination
  • 9.1Frequency of dissemination

    The data are disseminated annually.

• 10Accessibility and clarity
  • 10.1News release

    The results of the statistical operations are normally disseminated by using press releases that can be accessed via both the corresponding menu and the Press Releases Section in the web

    
    
  • 10.2Publications

    Environmental Accounts users may access the data regarding Physical Energy Flows Accounts via the INE website

    https://www.ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/en/categoria.htm?c=Estadistica_P&cid=1254735976603

  • 10.3On-line database

    INEbase is the system the INE uses to store statistical information on the Internet. It contains all the information the INE produces in electronic formats. The primary organisation of the information follows the theme-based classification of the Inventory of Statistical Operations of the State General Administration . The basic unit of INEbase is the statistical operation, defined as the set of activities that lead to obtaining statistical results on a determined sector or subject based on the individually collected data. Also included in the scope of this definition are synthesis preparation.

    
    

    Access to tables and results in INEBASE (www.ine.es) / Physical variables and environment / Environmental accounts

    https://www.ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/en/categoria.htm?c=Estadistica_P&cid=1254735976603

    Number of entries in 2023 was 

    - Number of entries to data bases AC1= 6,983
    - Number of entries to metadata bases AC2=1,139

  • 10.4Micro-data access
    A lot of statistical operations disseminate public domain anonymized files, available free of charge for downloading in the INE website Microdata Section
    

    Because of the nature of Environmental Accounts, there is no microdata available

  • 10.5Other

    The policy of the customised request service is to analyse if the statistical secrecy and significance conditions are met. After this analysis, a viability report is compiled and sent to the petitioner.

    The requests will be carried out via the User information area:

    https://www.ine.es/prodyser/informacion

  • 10.6Documentation on methodology

    The manuals compiled by EUROSTAT, "Manual for Physical Energy Flows Account - 2014" may be consulted in the following link:

    http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1798247/6191537/PEFA-Manual-2014-v20140515.pdf

  • 10.7Quality documentation

    The Commission (Eurostat) will assess the quality of the data transmitted and, within one month of receipt of the data, may request from the Member State additional information on the data or a revised set of data, as appropriate (art.7.4 of European Regulation No. 691/2011). In this quality report, which in the case of the Physical Energy Flows Account must be sent to EUROSTAT before December 31 of the year of submission of the data, it requests information on the primary statistical sources used in the preparation of the data. the account, as well as the estimation processes used.

    This standardized methodological report contains all the elements of what is considered a "User-oriented Quality Report" for this operation.

• 11Quality management
  • 11.1Quality assurance

    Quality assurance framework for the INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 16 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.

    
    

    The quality of synthesis statistics such as Environmental Accounts, is firstly derived from the multiple sources they use. In all of them it has been intended to obtain information that is as accurate as possible, minimising the different types of errors they may be affected by. Moreover, the decisions of the corresponding regulations are followed when compiling this data. See point 18.5.

  • 11.2Quality assessment

    The Commission (Eurostat) will assess the quality of the transmitted data and within a month after it is received may request additional information from the Member State regarding the data revised, as appropriate (Article 7.4 of European Regulation No. 691/2011).

    In the case of The Physical Energy Flow Account ( PEFA), the quality of its estimates depends mainly on the primary data that make up the Energy Statistics. The estimates of PEFA are based on the methodology designed by Eurostat, using the principles, rules and classifications of national accounts, which ensures their internal consistency and with other modules of the environmental accounts (ej: Air Emissions Accounts), as well as comparability with aggregates of national accounts.

     

     

     

     

     

• 12Relevance
  • 12.1User needs

    Environmental Accounts allow observing the pressure the economy puts on the environment and studies how to reduce it. They show interactions among the economy, households and environmental factors, and therefore offer more information than the Spanish National Accounts in this field.

    As an essential source of environmental data, they are basic for environmental politics decision-making and the development of impact assessment at a national and international level. According to the Sustainable Development principles included in the the European Green Deal and other initiatives, as well as the advance towards a low-emissions economy that is efficient in the use of resources, it is becoming more and more necessary to develop and implement a data framework structure that systematically includes the environmental and economic data. Moreover, since they constitute a synthesis statistical operation in the environmental field, they allow identifying gaps and improvements in the Spanish statistical system.

    Among the Environmental Accounts users are the following:
    • Ministries and other public institutions (observatories, etc.)
    • Territorial Administrations (Autonomous Communities)
    • Researchers and Academic institutions
    • Non-profit companies and institutions (Company research services, foundations, associations, etc.), trade unions and employers' organisations.
    • Press and specialised media

    Similarly, there are foreign institutional users (Eurostat, OECD, United Nations, etc.)

  • 12.2User satisfaction

    The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013,  2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...

    On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date.(Click  next link)

     

    
    
  • 12.3Completeness

    Physical Energy Flows Accounts meet the information requirements demanded by the European Parliament and Council Regulation (EU) No. 691/2011, of 6 July 2011, regarding European Environmental Economic Accounts, therefore they are exhaustive.

    The rate of compulsory statistical results that are available is of 100% (R1 = 100%)

• 13Accuracy and reliability
  • 13.1Overall accuracy

    Environmental Accounts are synthesis statistics, therefore they are affected by sampling errors coming from sources from which information is collected, which are analysed in order to see if they remain within reasonable limits. Non-sampling errors may come from the sources or from the information treatment of this operation (lack of coverage, measurement errors). In summary, direct measurement of accuracy in this case is not applicable.

    The main instrument to analyze the acuracity is the analysis of the reviews. The reviews show the degree of proximity between successive estimators of the same value, and it is reasonable to assume that the estimators converge to the true value when based on better and more reliable data.

     

     

  • 13.2Sampling error

    Environmental Accounts are synthesis statistics, therefore they are affected by sampling errors coming from sources from which information is collected, which are analysed in order to see if they remain within reasonable limits. 

     

  • 13.3Non-sampling error

    Environmental Accounts are synthesis statistics, therefore non-sampling errors may come from the sources or from the information treatment of this operation (lack of coverage, measurement errors).

• 14Timeliness and punctuality
  • 14.1Timeliness

    Physical Energy Flows Account estimates are sent to EUROSTAT within 21 months after the reference year finishes, in compliance with the European Regulation 691/2011 regarding European Environmental Economic Accounts, in which data transmission periods are regulated.

    The indicator of the time elapsed between the end of the reference period and dissemination in INEBase is TP1 = 23 months.

    Regulation (EU) 691/2011 establishes that in each annual data transmission, the data for years  n-2, n-1 and n is provided, "n" being the reference year, TP2=47 months.

  • 14.2Punctuality

    The Environmental Accounts results are published following the INE Structural Statistics Availability Calendar.
    https://www.ine.es/daco/daco41/calen.htm#temas

• 15Coherence and Comparability
  • 15.1Comparability - geographical

    The EU Member States use the same methodology for the compilation of estimates, which allows comparability among Physical Energy Flows Account estimates.

  • 15.2Comparability - over time

    The disseminated data of PEFA encompass the time serie 2015 - 2022 that are comparable which each other since there is no significant methodological breakdown .

    CC2= 8

     

  • 15.3Coherence - cross domain

    Environmental Accounts are coherent with Spanish National Accounts.

  • 15.4Coherence - internal

    The annual results of thePhysical Energy Flows Accounts are coherent among each other, and in relation with the the available annual series

• 16Cost and burden
  • 16.1Cost and burden

    In the 2024 Annual  Statistical Program, the estimate of the necessary budget appropriation to finance this Environmental Accounts/ Physical Eneergy Flows Accounts operation is 41,50 thousand euros.

    There is no burden on respondents, since the information provided by other statistics is used.

• 17Data revision
  • 17.1Data revision - policy

    The INE of Spain has a policy which regulates the basic aspects of statistical data revision, seeking to ensure process transparency and product quality. This policy is laid out in the document approved by the INE board of directors on 13 March of 2015, which is available on the INE website, in the section "Methods and projects/Quality and Code of Practice/INE’s Quality management/INE’s Revision policy" (link).

    This general policy sets the criteria that the different type of revisions should follow:  routine revision- it is the case of statistics whose production process includes regular revisions-; more extensive revision- when methodological or basic reference source changes take place-; and exceptional revision- for instance, when an error appears in a published statistic-.

    
    

    Environmental Accounts data is revised coherently with the data revision scheme of the Annual Spanish National Accounts.

    Regulation (EU) 691/2011 establishes that in each annual data transmission, the data for years  n-2, n-1 and n is provided, "n" being the reference year. Although to guarantee the comparability of the series, Ordinary Reviews are carried out in which the complete series is updated.

    
    In 2024 the complete series (2015-2022) has been updated.

  • 17.2Data revision - practice

    The factors that determine revisions in Physical Energy Flow Accounts estimates are basically the changes in the data of the Annual Spanish National Accounts, the Energy Statistics updates and the changes made for the improvement of estimation procedures.

    RMAR 2015-2020 (Total Physical Energy Flow)= 0,1%

    The Physical Energy Flow Account is built from a set of aggregate indicators on the origin and destination of energy flows that are based on a wide variety of statistical operations, which are in turn subject to their own availability and review schedule. In 2024, information on vehicle kilometres from vehicle inspections prepared by the Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) has been incorporated. This involves a review of the complete series (2015-2021) to ensure the internal comparability of the estimates.

• 18Statistical processing
  • 18.1Source data

    Since Physical Energy Flows Account is a synthesis statistic, it integrates and reconciles a great amount of economic and environmental information sources.The main source of information is the Energy Statistics compiled by the Ministry for Ecological Transition.

    Also, as auxiliary information uses the following statistical information:

    National Statistics Institute:

    • Spanish National Accounts
    • Energy Consumption Survey
    • Air Emissions Acconunts
    • Water Statistics

    Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge:

    • Emissions Inventory
    • Spanish Register of Emissions and Pollutant Sources (PRTR)

    Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Food

    • Fishing fleet Statistics

    Ministry of Public Works Statistics

    • Air Transport Statistics of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation
    • Traffic Maps of the Directorate General of Roads
    • Road Freight Transport Survey

    Ministry for home affairs

    • Records Stock of Vehicles of the Spanish Traffic Authority

    Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

    • Air Transport CO2
  • 18.2Frequency of data collection

    The data is collected annually.

  • 18.3Data collection

    Data collection techniques may vary depending on the type of source, the date in which the data is available, etc.

    Generally, the data is sent to the Environmental Accounts Unit by the different units that compile it. However the information can sometimes be obtained directly via the corresponding database.

  • 18.4Data validation

    The base information coming from different statistics undergoes a set of treatments: Outlier identification, error filtering, adjustment to Environmental Accounts stipulations.

  • 18.5Data compilation

    The compilation process may be structured in several stages:

    1. Updating of base information: Collection of available data

    2. Treatment of base information: It undergoes a series of treatments, consisting of outlier identification, error filtering and adjustment to Environmental Accounts stipulations.

    3. Breakdown of the data by industry and household sector as final consumers: In order to achieve a more accurate estimate, auxiliary files are used so as to achieve the highest possible breakdown level of the different identifiable components

    4. Estimate analysis and revision: The result time series are analysed in order to detect possible errors.

    5. Preparation of the final result files with the different required formats: sending format to EUROSTAT, and files for dissemination in INEBase (Results, Methodology, Press release)

  • 18.6Adjustment

    No seasonal adjustments are carried out.

• 19Comment
  • 19.1Comment

    Not applicable