In 2020, the environmental goods and services sector represented 3.9% of output, 2.8% of GVA, 4.4% of exports and 2.5% of employment in the Portuguese economy.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, this sector recorded increases in output (0.6%), GVA (1.9%) and employment (7.2%), contrary to what happened in the national economy (decreases of 7.5%, 5.8% and 2.2%, respectively).  Exports decreased by 2.1% in 2020, for the second consecutive year. 

In 2019, the last year with available information for the EU, Portugal occupied the twelfth position among the countries with the highest share of GVA of the environmental goods and services sector in national GVA and the fifth position among the countries with the highest share of exports in the national total.