United Kingdom - Coal rents (% of GDP)

Coal rents (% of GDP) in United Kingdom was 0.001 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.503 in 1982, while its lowest value was 0.000 in 1999.

Definition: Coal rents are the difference between the value of both hard and soft coal production at world prices and their total costs of production.

Source: Estimates based on sources and methods described in "The Changing Wealth of Nations: Measuring Sustainable Development in the New Millennium" (World Bank, 2011).

See also:

Year Value
1970 0.056
1971 0.064
1972 0.044
1973 0.048
1974 0.077
1975 0.406
1976 0.443
1977 0.380
1978 0.219
1979 0.132
1980 0.186
1981 0.455
1982 0.503
1983 0.204
1984 0.031
1985 0.094
1986 0.028
1987 0.008
1988 0.007
1989 0.008
1990 0.040
1991 0.034
1992 0.017
1993 0.003
1994 0.003
1995 0.009
1996 0.006
1997 0.003
1998 0.003
1999 0.000
2000 0.003
2001 0.011
2002 0.004
2003 0.004
2004 0.020
2005 0.011
2006 0.010
2007 0.012
2008 0.045
2009 0.017
2010 0.031
2011 0.036
2012 0.016
2013 0.007
2014 0.005
2015 0.003
2016 0.002
2017 0.002
2018 0.002
2019 0.001

Development Relevance: Accounting for the contribution of natural resources to economic output is important in building an analytical framework for sustainable development. In some countries earnings from natural resources, especially from fossil fuels and minerals, account for a sizable share of GDP, and much of these earnings come in the form of economic rents - revenues above the cost of extracting the resources. Natural resources give rise to economic rents because they are not produced. For produced goods and services competitive forces expand supply until economic profits are driven to zero, but natural resources in fixed supply often command returns well in excess of their cost of production. Rents from nonrenewable resources - fossil fuels and minerals - as well as rents from overharvesting of forests indicate the liquidation of a country's capital stock. When countries use such rents to support current consumption rather than to invest in new capital to replace what is being used up, they are, in effect, borrowing against their future.

Limitations and Exceptions: This definition of economic rent differs from that used in the System of National Accounts, where rents are a form of property income, consisting of payments to landowners by a tenant for the use of the land or payments to the owners of subsoil assets by institutional units permitting them to extract subsoil deposits.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The estimates of natural resources rents are calculated as the difference between the price of a commodity and the average cost of producing it. This is done by estimating the world price of units of specific commodities and subtracting estimates of average unit costs of extraction or harvesting costs (including a normal return on capital). These unit rents are then multiplied by the physical quantities countries extract or harvest to determine the rents for each commodity as a share of gross domestic product (GDP).

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Environment Indicators

Sub-Topic: Natural resources contribution to GDP