ESTONIAN ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW 2009

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2. The economy Estonia’s economy experienced very successful years in the last decade. In 2006, Estonia ranked second in Europe in terms of economic growth. Even though economic growth is not necessarily accompanied by increased pressure on the environment, such has been the case in Estonia. High demand for transport, fuels and electricity during the boom in consumer spending and construction led to higher levels of emissions and amounts of waste generated. 2.1. Gross domestic product and consumer price index Starting in the beginning of 2000, Estonia’s gross domestic product (GDP) began growing very rapidly – more than 10% per year by 2006 (see figure 2.1, table 2.1). In Europe, Estonia was second only to Latvia in economic growth in 2006. The rapid economic growth was based primarily on brisk internal demand, which rose to record levels in 2004–2006 thanks to good loan conditions. Private consumption was also favoured by positive trends on the labour market, high consumer confidence, rapid wage growth, lowering of the income tax rate, and growth of old age pensions. Investments also grew, and their rapid growth was conditioned by the brisk investment activity on the part of companies, encouraged in turn by low interest margins and high influx of foreign investment. Compared to 2005, the gross domestic product increased 10.4% in 2006. This was the highest growth rate of the 2000s. Private consumer spending in 2007 was 2.8 times higher than in 1995. The cooling of Estonia’s economy took place gradually, when internal demand began decreasing in 2007. Growth fell from 10% in the first quarter of 2007 to 4.8% in the fourth quarter. While investment growth slowed down in early 2007, private consumer spending was at the highest level in recent years. But the major price rise and lower consumer confidence affected consumer behaviour and the second quarter of 2007 saw the beginning of lower consumer spending. This was accompanied by a cooling of the real estate market, which had seen very rapid development in the preceding years. Economic growth slowed down to pre-EU-accession levels. In 2008, internal demand continued to drop and as the impact of the international financial crisis began to be felt by Estonia’s primary trading partners, the Estonian economy began rapidly heading downhill. In 2008, GDP fell 3.6%. In the fourth quarter alone, the drop was 9.7% year-on-year. According to the forecasts from Eesti Pank, the economy will contract by 12.3% in 2009. Along with the rapid economic growth, prices rose as well. The standardized consumer price index was still 4.1% in 2005, but rose to 6.6% in 2007 (figure 2.2). The price rise was supported by rapid growth in internal demand and wages that persisted for several years and was reflected in the price of services. Even though internal demand fell in 2007, the rise in the prices was impacted by the rise in the price of fuel and external factors. The price increases continued in 2008 and the average for the year was 10.4%. The primary reason was the steep rise in oil and food prices in the world market. Along with the economic recession, inflation pressure started dropping as well. From autumn 2008, growth in consumer prices started slowing and in early 2009, the annual growth in the consumer price index had dropped to 3.9%. According to the forecasts from Eesti Pank, the economy will contract by 0.5% in 2009. 18
change compared to previous year, % 200 000 9.7 GDP in market prices, millions of kroons, reference year 2000 10.4 9.2 9 GDP in market prices, millions of kroons 150 000 100 000 50 000 0 95 491 7.7 7.8 102 808 110 847 7.1 118 736 127 682 7.5 139 373 153 836 163 578 6.3 157 631 -3.6 6 3 0 -4 % 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Figure 2.1. GDP in market prices in 2000–2008. Data: Statistics Estonia. Table 2.1. GDP growth rate in European Union countries. in fixed prices with respect to the previous year’s GDP growth rate (%). Data: Eurostat. 2000 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 EU (27 countries) 3.9 2.5 2.0 3.1 2.9 0.9 EU (15 countries) 3.9 2.3 1.8 2.9 2.7 0.6 Estonia 9.6 7.5 9.2 10.4 6.3 -3.6 Table 2.2. GDP change compared to the previous year (using the chain method) by field of activity (%). Data: Statistics Estonia. Agriculture and hunting 2000 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 24.8 -9.8 -0.5 2.3 -12 7.6 Forestry 9.5 -8.1 -11.8 -15.3 -10.5 4.3 Fishing -3.8 -9.9 1.6 4.2 8.1 3 Mining 16.4 -5.6 10.4 3.4 11.9 -6.9 Processing industry 19.4 10.9 11.1 11.9 9 -4 Electricity, gas and water supply 9.5 1.3 0.3 5.6 -3.3 -7.7 Construction 18.3 9.8 25.6 17.8 10 -6 Hotels and restaurants 7.5 13.9 10.9 8.6 6 -4.5 Transportation, warehousing and communications 7.2 8.9 8 10 6.5 -5.7 19
Page 1: Estonian Environment ESTONIAN ENVIR
Page 4 and 5: Published in the “Estonian Enviro
Page 6 and 7: Table of contents Foreword 3 Introd
Page 8 and 9: 10. The environment and health 162
Page 10 and 11: Summary Socioeconomic background In
Page 12: Part 1 Socioeconomic background 1.
Page 15 and 16: 1 600 000 1 550 000 1 500 000 popul
Page 17 and 18: Sources: • Ainsaar, M., Maripuu L
Page 22 and 23: Table 2.3. GDP per capita as measur
Page 24 and 25: agriculture and fishery 3%, 3859 pr
Page 26 and 27: 2.4. Transport Transport gives peop
Page 28 and 29: 2.5. Tourism After independence was
Page 30 and 31: 2.6. Agriculture The relative impor
Page 32 and 33: Fertilizer use With regard to inorg
Page 34 and 35: Agri-environmental support monitori
Page 36: 3. Natural resources
Page 39 and 40: Construction mineral resources were
Page 41 and 42: 10000 thousands of cubic metres 800
Page 43 and 44: Status of fish stocks in inland bod
Page 45 and 46: 3.2.3. Restocking As a consequence
Page 47 and 48: Map 3.2. Average volume per hectare
Page 49 and 50: 15 increment felling volume optimum
Page 51 and 52: 3.3.5. Forest fires One of the exte
Page 53 and 54: 3.4. Hunting Hunting is closely rel
Page 55 and 56: 20 000 population size hunting bag
Page 58 and 59: 4. Weather patterns and causes of c
Page 60 and 61: o C Ristna -22.9/-28.4 Vilsandi -21
Page 62 and 63: 4.2. Greenhouse gas emissions and o
Page 64 and 65: agriculture 6% waste 3% industrial
Page 66 and 67: According to Statistics Estonia, CF
Page 68: 5. Ambient air
Page 71 and 72:
5.2. Emissions 5.2.1. Emissions of
Page 73 and 74:
5.2.2. Tropospheric ozone precursor
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Finland Bulgaria Spain Latvia tropo
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40 35 fine particulate matter (PM 2
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other mobile pollution sources 0.04
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6 5 4 3 2 tonnes 1 0 5.66 5.41 4.30
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Compared to years past, the number
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Hiiumaa 100 89 Saaremaa Läänemaa
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6. Water The existence of clean fre
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300 250 30 agriculture 200 13 manuf
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6.2.2. Mining and cooling water In
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250 wastewater volume total phospho
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Tallinn Kohtla-Järve Rakvere Tartu
Page 98 and 99:
6.4. Status of water 6.4.1. Groundw
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6.4.2. Evaluating the status of sur
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6.4.4. Status of rivers Proceeding
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Hirve Imsi Pale Uia Keila_1 Neeva S
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6.4.5. Status of lakes The ecologic
Page 108:
7. Soil and land use
Page 111 and 112:
7.1.2. Soil formation Soil is creat
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7.1.4. Soil status The status of so
Page 115 and 116:
7.2. Changes in land use 7.2.1. Cha
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7.2.2. Changes in land use as refle
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partly attributable to unrealized p
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7.3. Urban sprawl Suburban sprawl i
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green network core areas and corrid
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8. Biological diversity Considering
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Table 8.2 Abundance and trends for
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Species habitats The status of habi
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non-initiation of Natura environmen
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8.2.3. Achieving protection of biol
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Management plans Currently there ar
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8.3. Inland water bodies The divers
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Small lakes The equilibrium of smal
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8.4.2. Species: seals With the mild
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Proliferation of macroalgae Costal
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9. Waste
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20 total waste generated hazardous
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9.4. Municipal waste generation and
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The primary reasons for the delay a
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2004 2006 80 2005 2007 target of 15
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9.8. Recovery of waste Recovery of
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deposition in landfills other dispo
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Table 9.2. Number of landfills in 2
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10. The environment and health The
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a deficiency in the technical condi
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11. Economic instruments for enviro
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and payment, rates and use of the s
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tion, environmental educational ini
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12. Environmental management tools
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12.3. Environmental labels Consumer
Page 180:
Appendix
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year month, day place event indicat
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Abbreviations used ARC - Agricultur
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ESTONIAN ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW 2009

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