In 2021, the environmental goods and services sector represented 4.4% of output, 3.1% of GVA, 4.5% of exports and 2.7% of employment in the Portuguese economy.

After a year of contraction marked by the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2021 this sector recorded strong growth in output (24.6%), GVA (20.6%), exports (22.3%) and employment (11.4%), and above the average for the national economy (12.1%, 7.0%, 20.1% and 2.4%, respectively), driven by growth in activities associated with renewable energies.

In 2020, the last year with available information for the EU, Portugal occupied the fifteenth position in relation to the share of GVA of the environmental goods and services sector in national GVA (2.8% and similar to the EU average), having dropped three positions from the previous year, and maintained its fifth position among the Member States with the highest weight of exports in the national total (4.4%).