In 2025, projects related to wastewater treatment attracted most of the environmental protection investments in the EU, accounting for 37.7% of the total investment. It was followed by waste management (27.3%) and air and climate protection (11.2%).
Eurostat estimates that in 2025, EU countries invested about €79 billion in assets essential for providing environmental protection services, accounting for 0.4% of GDP and 1.9% of investments in the total economy.
Corporations devoted €49.6 billion to the acquisition of technologies and equipment targeting the reduction of environmental pressures generated by their production processes, representing 62.7% of the total environmental protection investments. These investments included e.g. air emissions-reducing equipment, wastewater treatment plants, maintenance and repair of sewage treatment plants, waste collection and treatment equipment and plants, vehicles to transport waste, acquisitions of land to create a natural reserve and protect biodiversity.
The general government and the non-profit sector accounted for the remaining 37.3% of investments.
Source datasets: env_epea_invgg, env_epea_invsp, env_epea_invap, env_epea_invte, nama_10_gdp, nasa_10_nf_tr
