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Between 2002 and 2003 the mass of natural resources and products used by the UK economy fell by 1 per cent. This primarily comprises domestic extraction supplemented by net imports. Resource use has fallen by 2 per cent since 2000 and by 13 per cent since 1990.
The Environmental Accounts published by the Office for National Statistics and include new information on the use of natural resources, UK oil and gas reserves, environmental expenditure and environmental taxation.
The Environmental Accounts show that:
UK material consumption amounted to 667 million tonnes in 2003 compared to 671 million tonnes in 2002, 680 million tonnes in 2000 and 765 million tonnes in 1990. UK resource use is currently at its lowest level since 1984. Recent falls in the extraction of natural resources primarily reflects a decline in the extraction of fossil fuels and construction aggregates.
While domestic material consumption continues to decline, the mass of imports reached record levels (238 million tonnes) in 2003 due to large increases in fossil fuel imports. Fossil fuel imports, at 102 million tonnes, are the highest level since 1976 and reflect a return to coal combustion by electricity generators as a reaction to high gas prices.
In 2003, the mass of exports fell 4 per cent year on year due lower exports of fossil fuels. Total exports amounted to 187 million tonnes compared with 195 million tonnes in 2003 with exports of fossil fuels declining to 103 million tonnes compared with 119 million tonnes in 2002.
The Environmental Accounts also compares UK output with domestic material consumption giving an indicator of material productivity. This suggests domestic material consumption and economic growth have decoupled since 1990.
Environmental Accounts presents data on the value of forestry for the first time, estimated to be £2.9 billion in 2003. The new dataset also presents information on wood products. UK production, imports and exports of sawn wood, wood based panels and paper shows that domestic consumption (domestic production plus imports less exports) has risen for all three varieties since 1994 most notably, the consumption of wood based panels has increased by 15.1 per cent.
The latest data for 2003 show that reserves of oil were estimated to be around 3 billion tonnes, while gas reserves were around 2.5 billion cubic metres. Of these, proven reserves of oil only accounted for 0.6 billion tonnes and proven reserves of gas for 0.6 billion cubic metres. These figures are down slightly on 2002 values. The estimated life expectancy for oil is approximately 11 years, an increase of one year on 2002 estimates, while the life expectancy of gas reserves remains unchanged at 12 years.
Total revenue received by the Government in 2003 from environmental taxation was £33.7 billion, an increase of 2.8 per cent on 2002 levels. Duty from hydrocarbon oils such as unleaded petrol accounted for 67 per cent of this total. Environmental taxes as a proportion of total taxes and social contributions stood at 8.6 per cent in 2003, while they amounted to 3.1 per cent of GDP. Environmental taxes have been revised to include Hydrobenefit and the Gas levy to ensure consistency with the National Accounts.
New data for 2002 from the Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs show total environmental protection expenditure by all industries amounted to £2.6 billion within this, the two largest domains of expenditure were waste and wastewater management. These accounted for 66 per cent of total environmental protection expenditure. Expenditure on the protection of ambient air and climate at £0.4 billion represented 17 per cent of total expenditure.
NOTES
1. Environmental accounts are ‘‘satellite accounts‘‘ to the main national accounts. They provide information on air pollution, energy consumption, oil and gas reserves, trade in basic materials, environmental taxati
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