In this paper first preliminary results of the German System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) on the development of embodied environmental pressures of imports and exports in the period 1995 to 2004 are presented for the variables energy, carbon dioxide emissions and goods transport performance. The results on energy and carbon dioxide presented in this report are based on a methodologically improved IOT approach. Among others a so called expanded hybrid IOT was applied, which was tailor-made for the energy calculations.

The causes of the development of embodied pressures are studied on basis of detailed results of the German SEEA by homogeneous branches of production. It is a main purpose of the study to investigate whether the variables included show a significant difference in the development between the production and the consumption perspective. And subsequently it is asked whether the hypothesis is supported for Germany that there is a tendency of relocating environmentally intensive production activities to the rest of the world. It is suggested to establish an EU-wide system of monitoring the embodied environmental pressures of external trade flows on basis of a systematic and harmonised statistical approach.