The EU economy’s dependency on nature
JRC Working Papers in Economics and Finance, 2025/4
Although the connection between nature and economic activities is indisputable, nature contribution is so far not much reflected in current economic modelling. This note serves two purposes: (1) to highlight the dependency of the EU economy on nature, and (2) to guide replicating and expanding the approach described in Evison et al. (2023), which is a possible entry point for more advanced analysis. To assess the reliance of an economy on nature, The proposed method applies the ENCORE (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure) sectoral exposure to ecosystems to an input-output model (EXIOBASE). The analysis finds that, depending on the input data used, between 19 and 36% of the EU’s gross value added (GVA) is generated by industries’ operations and upstream supply chains that have a high dependency on nature. This share of the economy could be severely exposed to nature degradation, and the contributions of these sectors to other sectors could create cascading difficulties along value chains. Overall, the EU and Chinese economies appear more dependent on nature than the one of the United States.
HIRSCHBUEHL Dominik;
NEUVILLE Aude;
PETRACCO Marco;
SANCHEZ ARJONA Irene;
European Commission: Joint Research Centre, HIRSCHBUEHL, D., NEUVILLE, A., PETRACCO, M. and SANCHEZ ARJONA, I., The EU economy’s dependency on nature, European Commission, Ispra, 2025, JRC140304.
2025-02-28
European Commission
JRC140304
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