This document discusses the development of green growth indicators in Slovakia. It outlines the steps taken to establish a working group, select relevant indicators, collect data from various agencies, and publish the first set of 33 green growth indicators for Slovakia in 2014. Some key challenges included institutional coordination across many actors, ensuring data quality and continuity of measurement, and correctly interpreting indicator trends within Slovakia's national context. The indicators are intended to help assess progress on green growth, identify policy priorities, and evaluate policy implementation.

1. Lessons Learnt from Green Growth
Indicator Development in Slovakia
Tatiana Gustafikova, Slovak Environmental Agency
www.sazp.sk
Banská Bystrica
Bratislava

2. We do not inherit the earth
from our ancestors, we borrow
it from our children.
– Native American Proverb
www.sazp.sk

3. 3
Outline of the Presentation
 Environment and its assessment in the Slovak
Republic
 Green Growth/Green Economy and the Slovak
Republic
 Towards Green Growth Indicators
 What have we learnt?
 Development, Challenges and Future work

4. 4
Slovak Republic
49 034 km2

5. 5
Basic Figures on Slovakia
HDI 0,83 (39. place)
GDP
- total (at market prices 2014)
- per capita (current prices 2014)
75 214,9 mil. EUR
13 900 EUR
Government statistics
- deficit (2014)
- gross debt (2014)
2,9% of GDP
53,6% of GDP
Unemployment rate (2014)
- less than 25 years
13,2%
29,7%
Life expectancy – females (2014)
Life expectancy – males (2014)
80 years
73 years
HDI 0,83 (39. place)
GDP
- total (at market prices 2014)
- per capita (current prices 2014)
75 214,9 mil. EUR
13 900 EUR
Government statistics
- deficit (2014)
- gross debt (2014)
2,9% of GDP
53,6% of GDP
Unemployment rate (2014)
- less than 25 years
13,2%
29,7%
Life expectancy – females (2014)
Life expectancy – males (2014)
80 years
73 years

6. 6
Basic Figures on the Environment in Slovakia
Area 49 034 km2
Area covered by forests 41%
Protected Areas for biodiversity: Habitats
Directive (2013)
48,845 km2
GHG emissions (without LULUCF) (2012) 42 710 thousand of tonnes CO2 equiv.
PM10 emissions (2012) 32 449 tonnes
DMC
- total (2013)
- per capita (2013)
61 535 thousand of tonnes
11 367 tonnes
Resource productivity (2013) 1,1959 EUR per kg.
Energy intensity of the SR economy (2013) 337,2 kg of oil equiv. per 1000 EUR
Waste
- landfill rate (2012)
- recycling rate of municipal waste (2013)
41,6%
10,7%
Water
- population connected to public water supply
(2014)
- population connected to urban wastewater
collecting and treatment system (2014)
87,7%
64,7%
Environmental taxation
- revenues as % of GDP (2014)
- revenues as % of TRT&SC (2012)
1,72%
6,18%
Environmental Performance Index 2015 85,42% (24. place)

7. 7
Armenia Slovakia
Population 3 009 800 (133th) 5 421 349 (129th)
Area 29 800 km² (142th) 49 035 km² (116th)
Population
density
100/km² (99th) 110/km2 (88th)
Independence 23 August 1991
21 September 1991
1 January 1993

8. 8
vs
Armenia Slovakia
GDP per capita
(2014)
current U.S. dollars
3 873,5
(121th)
18 507
(61th)
GDP* growth (2013-
2014)
3,5 % 2,5 %
Urbanisation
(The World Factbook,
2015)
62,7% of total population 53,9% of total
population
Life expectancy at
birth
(2014)
71 male, 79 female 73 male, 80 female
* GDP at market prices based on constant local currency
Source: World bank

9. 9
Armenia
Slovakia

10. 10

11. 11
Slovak Environment Agency (SEA)
It is a professional organization of the SR MoE with a
national scope, focusing on the environmental care and
landscape planning in accordance with the principles of
sustainable development.

12. 12
Environmental Indicators in Slovakia
 Key tools for environmental assessment, reporting
and policymaking.
The purpose is mainly:
 to provide stable base for the evaluation of progress in
areas of the environment
 to evaluate the fulfilling of targets and given measures
 to answer key policy questions
 to create a national set of indicators that is compatible
with internationally accepted indicators sets and is a
basis for international comparison

13. 13
SEA – database of env. data
National Report on the
State of Environment
in SR (legal
framework)
In 2013 one chapter about
green growth and green
economy
English version
Environmental
Indicators/Core set (in
english)
Environmental
components indicators,
env. risk factors indi, env.
care indicators
Sectoral indicators
report and sectoral
indicators
Energy, industry,
transport, agriculture,
tourism, forestry
SD indicators Environmental pillar
SCP and RE indicators According to EEA and
Eurostat set of indicators
GG indicators OECD
Analyse of the indicators and reports of EEA, OECD, EUROSTAT, OSN (UN CSD)
Assessment of the possibility to use them in the slovak conditon
Set of the individual and agregated indicators
SDIndikators
Sectorial
indicators
Indicators
MF Indicators
SCP Indicators
GG Indicators
Key
indicators
<2013
New set of
sectorial indicators
Environmental
indicators
New set of
SD Indicators
RE Indicators
GG Indicators
2014 <
Building of the SEA indicators
assessment

14. 14
Enviroportal

15. 15

16. 16
Green Growth/Green Economy and the
Slovak Republic
 Slovakia is also bound by a number of outcomes from the RIO+
Summit In this perspective, and other conceptual and strategic
documents of the EU, OECD and UN.

17. 17
Time for Green Growth
 The Slovak Republic is a small and very open economy.
 Structural changes are necessary due to the fact that,
though the Slovak Republic in the framework of the
European Union belongs to the most rapidly growing
economies (its gross domestic product per capita in
purchasing power parity increased from 47 % of the EU27
average in 1995 to 73 % in 2012), its competitive
advantage was made by low taxes and labour price.
 In the international comparison the Slovak Republic still
belongs to the countries with the lowest innovation
performance, lagging behind the EU average considerably.

18. 18
Green Growth Indicators
The idea of developing Green Growth Indicators
for the Slovak Republic comes from:
 Outcomes of National Workshop on
Green Growth (September 2011)
 Recommendations of the OECD in the
Environmental Performance Review of
the Slovak Republic (September 2011)
and Economic Survey of the Slovak
Republic (December 2012)

19. 19
Basic document and inspiration:
 Towards Green Growth: Monitoring
progress. OECD Indicators
What was/is the target?
 Creating the national set of GG indicators
 Tool for identifying priorities and the most
pressing issues
 Formulating and assessing Green
Growth/Green Economy policy options
 Evaluating the performance of policy
implementation
Green Growth Indicators

20. 20
 Institutional coordination and capacity building
 Many actors involved, institutional coordination and
cooperation, training and capacity building; proper
funding and priority setting
Steps to Develop Green Growth Indicators in Slovakia
 Working group on Green Growth Indicators
established in July 2012 (MoE/SEA)
 Co-operation with the OECD

21. 21
Steps to Develop Green Growth Indicators in Slovakia

22. 22
 Indicator selection
 Reflecting national circumstances
 Balance between “green” and “growth”
 Identifying data sources across government agencies
 Check and comparison of indicators data definitions and
availability of data in Slovakia
 Data compilation and measurement
 Organising data flows
 Addressing quality issues, including time series
Steps to Develop Green Growth Indicators in Slovakia

23. 23
Steps to Develop Green Growth Indicators in Slovakia
 Data used come from the official national or international sources and
databases.
SEA
MoLaSA
SHMI
SNP SR
SGI
SO SR
MoE
MoEcIFP
MoF
MoAaRD
SO SR
MoH
PHA
Data flow

24. 24
 Interpretation and communication
 Placing the indicators in the country’s context
 Correctly interpreting the results
 Many actors involved, need for continuity in the
measurement efforts, coping with limited
resources
Steps to Develop Green Growth Indicators in Slovakia

25. 25
Summary assessment of indicator ' s trend from
the green growth perspective is based on
 a subjective evaluation of the responsible assessor due to
the fact that the Strategy is not officially implemented in
the Slovak Republic and therefore specific objectives have
not been defined yet.
 assessment was built on the trends analysis.
 Assessed trend was reviewed and discussed with the WG
members
Notes:
+ positive trend
+/- stable trend
- negative trend
n.a. – no available

26. 26

27. 27
Steps to Develop Green Growth Indicators in Slovakia
 First outcome – august 2012
 Data collected and electronically published – end of 2012
 comprises 33 individual indicators that are relevant in Slovakia's
conditions
 4 of them describe voluntary instruments of the environmental
strategy (one of the priorities areas of Governmental Programme
2012-2016)

28. 28

29. 29

30. 30

31. 31
 Publication released in November 2014
(bilingual)
http://www.enviroportal.sk/uploads/files/Dokumenty/ZelenyRast.pdf

32. 32
Selected Green Growth Indicators in the Slovak
Republic
Indicator
Definition
Short assessment
Graph

33. 33
Environmental and resource productivity
 water use
 waste generation
 greenhouse gas emissions
 material consumption
 phosphorus surpluses
Decoupling (absolute or relative)
is evident in the following areas

34. 34
Environmental and resource productivity
Armenia Slovakia
Renewable energy
consumption (% of total final
energy consumption)
6,6 % 10,5 %
Renewable electricity
output (% of total electricity
output)
28,9 % 19,3 %
Renewable energy

35. 35
Environmental and resource productivity
Carbon productivity

36. 36
Environmental and resource productivity
Material productivity

37. 37
Environmental and resource productivity
Waste

38. 38
Natural asset base
Changes in land use

39. 39
Environmental quality of life
Connecting the public to the public sewerage system
Connecting the public to the public water supplies

40. 40
Economic opportunities and policy
responses
Note: A - Agricultural
production and technologies
B - Production, distribution
and rational utilisation of
energy
C - Manufacturing an
technologies
Total number of products with
the right to use the national
environmental
label the Environmentally
Friendly Product

41. 41
The set of the indicators
 Represents a first attempt at transferring the OECD
indicators for green growth to the national level,
and providing feedback to the international
community.
 Becomes one of the tools that may shape the view of
government and the public to green growth and can
help to shift towards a more positive view of the
adopted measures, which are essential to the
transition to a green economy in Slovakia.

42. 42
 New chapter „Green Development and Green economy“ in the
publication „State of the Environment Report Slovak Republic 2013“
(published in 2014) https://www.enviroportal.sk/spravy/spravy-o-
zp/kapitola/521)
 Green Growth incorporated into National programme of Reforms (since
2013) and in the development of Operational Programme „Quality of
Environment“ for 2014 – 2020
 The chapter concerning green growth in the prepared Environmental
strategy and in the Low carbon Strategy
 Utilisation of green growth indicators approach in the sectorial reports
 Committee for Terminology under MoE – official Slovak definitions on
terms related to the Green Growth/Green Economy
 Public awareness/information – web page
(https://www.enviroportal.sk/environmentalne-temy/starostlivost-o-
zp/zeleny-rast)
Implications

43. 43
 Challenge: leadership beyond
the MoE range
 Broad working group –
communication and
compromising in order to
specify relevant and balanced
inputs
 No available data and clear
(recognized) definitions of
 Green jobs
 Green innovation
 Green patents
Obstacles, Barriers
and Positive Experiences
 First attempt of transferring
OECD indicators for Green
Growth to the national level
and adding some new
„national“ ones
 View of the government and
public on the Green
Growth/Green Economy
 Improvement of cross-sectoral
and governmental/non-
governmental cooperation
applicable in other areas

44. 44
Challenges and Future Work
•Working group “life“Strengthening of inter-
governmental
cooperation
•Stable information base for different target
group
•English version of database
Education and public
awareness
•Response to the new challenges and
priorities in environmental policy and
assessment of the trends
Tool for ex post assessing
of policies
•Green jobs (statistics, definitions, potential)
•New indicator – Green innovations
Demand from other
ministries/institutions
•Conference Slovakia towards Green Economy
•Publication on Green Green Economy in
Slovakia
Slovakian Presidency of
Council of the EU in 2016

45. 45
 Všetko, čo robíme, je iba kvapka v
mori, ale keby sme to nerobili, tá
kvapka by tam chýbala.
 Matka Tereza

46. Thank you for your attention
tatiana.gustafikova@sazp.sk
www.sazp.sk

47. 47
Time for Green Growth
 Among the most discussed environmental improvements related topics in Slovakia are energy efficiency, the greater
utilisation of renewable energy sources, and various adaptation measures including flood protection.
 A promising area with certain prospects appears to be the sector of renewable energy sources (RES). The country’s
natural conditions make it particularly suitable for the development of hydro energy and the use of biomass.
Appropriate resources for biomass are provided mainly by forestry.
 An area of emerging faces some challenges including the disposal of environmental burdens (contaminated sites), the
reconstruction and modernisation of transport infrastructure, and expanding energy savings in the building sector.
 The country has one of the highest landfilling rates in the EU, reflecting the low level of landfill gate fees.