Abstract:The use of global, multiregional input-output (MRIO) analysis for consumption-based (footprint) accounting has expanded significantly over the last decade. Most of the global studies on environmental and social impacts associated with consumption or embodied in international trade would have been impossible without the rapid development of extended MRIO databases. We present an overview of the developments in the field of MRIO analysis, in particular as applied to consumption-based environmental and social foo… Show more
“…However, that perspective has so far rarely been taken up in the reviewed literature. For income-and consumptionbased approaches, which both rely on input-output modelling, two key challenges await (Malik et al 2018, Tukker et al 2018: (a) methodological refinements in multi-layer representations of physical and monetary aspects of supply chains as well as nesting cities, countries and the world economy, and (b) accelerated data gathering and model updates, which is constrained by the need for statistical offices to report the underlying information. The combination of productionwith (income-) and consumption-based accounting is highly valuable for informing environmental policies, evaluating responsibility for resource use and emissions (Jakob and Marschinski 2013, Schaffartzik et al 2015, Steininger et al 2015 and assessing the prospects for relative and absolute decoupling.…”
Section: Conclusion: Status Quo For Decoupling Studies and The Way Fmentioning
As long as economic growth is a major political goal, decoupling growth from resource use and emissions is a prerequisite for a sustainable net-zero emissions future. However, empirical evidence for absolute decoupling, i.e. decreasing resource use and emissions at the required scale despite continued economic growth, is scarce and scattered across different research streams. In this two-part systematic review, we assess how and to what extent decoupling has been observed and what can be learnt for addressing the sustainability and climate crisis. Based on a transparent approach, we systematically identify and screen more than 11 500 scientific papers, eventually analyzing full texts of 835 empirical studies on the relationship between economic growth (GDP), resource use (materials and energy) and greenhouse gas emissions. Part I of the review examines how decoupling has been investigated across three research streams: energy, materials and energy, and emissions. Part II synthesizes the empirical evidence and policy implications (Haberl et al 2020 Environ. Res. Lett. 15 065003). In part I, we examine the topical, temporal and geographical scopes, methods of analysis, institutional networks and prevalent conceptual angles. We find that in this rapidly growing literature, the vast majority of studies-decomposition, 'causality' and Environmental Kuznets Curve analysis-approach the topic from a statistical-econometric point of view, while hardly acknowledging thermodynamic principles on the role of energy and materials for socio-economic activities. A potentially fundamental incompatibility between economic growth and systemic societal changes to address the climate crisis is rarely considered. We conclude that the existing wealth of empirical evidence merits braver conceptual advances than we have seen thus far. Future work should focus on comprehensive multi-indicator long-term analyses, conceptually grounded on the fundamental biophysical basis of socio-economic activities, incorporating the role of global supply chains as well as the wider societal role and preconditions of economic growth.
“…However, that perspective has so far rarely been taken up in the reviewed literature. For income-and consumptionbased approaches, which both rely on input-output modelling, two key challenges await (Malik et al 2018, Tukker et al 2018: (a) methodological refinements in multi-layer representations of physical and monetary aspects of supply chains as well as nesting cities, countries and the world economy, and (b) accelerated data gathering and model updates, which is constrained by the need for statistical offices to report the underlying information. The combination of productionwith (income-) and consumption-based accounting is highly valuable for informing environmental policies, evaluating responsibility for resource use and emissions (Jakob and Marschinski 2013, Schaffartzik et al 2015, Steininger et al 2015 and assessing the prospects for relative and absolute decoupling.…”
Section: Conclusion: Status Quo For Decoupling Studies and The Way Fmentioning
As long as economic growth is a major political goal, decoupling growth from resource use and emissions is a prerequisite for a sustainable net-zero emissions future. However, empirical evidence for absolute decoupling, i.e. decreasing resource use and emissions at the required scale despite continued economic growth, is scarce and scattered across different research streams. In this two-part systematic review, we assess how and to what extent decoupling has been observed and what can be learnt for addressing the sustainability and climate crisis. Based on a transparent approach, we systematically identify and screen more than 11 500 scientific papers, eventually analyzing full texts of 835 empirical studies on the relationship between economic growth (GDP), resource use (materials and energy) and greenhouse gas emissions. Part I of the review examines how decoupling has been investigated across three research streams: energy, materials and energy, and emissions. Part II synthesizes the empirical evidence and policy implications (Haberl et al 2020 Environ. Res. Lett. 15 065003). In part I, we examine the topical, temporal and geographical scopes, methods of analysis, institutional networks and prevalent conceptual angles. We find that in this rapidly growing literature, the vast majority of studies-decomposition, 'causality' and Environmental Kuznets Curve analysis-approach the topic from a statistical-econometric point of view, while hardly acknowledging thermodynamic principles on the role of energy and materials for socio-economic activities. A potentially fundamental incompatibility between economic growth and systemic societal changes to address the climate crisis is rarely considered. We conclude that the existing wealth of empirical evidence merits braver conceptual advances than we have seen thus far. Future work should focus on comprehensive multi-indicator long-term analyses, conceptually grounded on the fundamental biophysical basis of socio-economic activities, incorporating the role of global supply chains as well as the wider societal role and preconditions of economic growth.
“…The detailed methodological frame of environmentally extended multi‐regional input–output (EEMRIO) models can be found in Miller and Blair (2009), and they have been widely used in the recent literature for estimating the environmental impacts from production and international trade (see Wang, Li, Lee, Wang, and Du (2019) for a review). More concretely, the EEMRIO model is especially useful in the assessment of the emissions responsibilities of regions under consumption‐based accounting (CBA, which is also known as the carbon footprint; see Wiedmann (2009) and Malik, McBain, Wiedmann, Lenzen, and Murray (2018) for a review). The general equation for such estimates is as follows:…”
Although European countries have made great efforts to reduce their territorial carbon emissions, global emissions are still growing. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating within Europe, as transnational institutions, can make significant contributions in translating European efforts into global emissions reduction. Here, we estimate the carbon footprint of the foreign multinationals’ affiliates (FMNEs) operating within the European Union (EU) in 2015 as a first assessment of the MNEs’ potential regarding European and global carbon emissions reduction targets. Our findings show that FMNEs generate 17% of the total carbon footprint of the EU but only 12% of the total value added. Thus, the net impacts of FMNE are considered to be in environmental deficit because their adverse environmental impacts are relatively higher than their positive economic ones. Calculations are made under the assumption that FMNEs produce using the same technology as their domestic peers; therefore, the carbon/economic imbalance found is attributed to the FMNEs’ distribution across sectors. The participation of FMNEs in carbon‐intensive industrial sectors are remarkably high in low‐income EU members; therefore, the effective reduction of the carbon footprint in those countries is largely conditioned by the decisions of foreign MNEs’ headquarters. Furthermore, those countries are more vulnerable to capital leakages in the case where a European carbon tax was to be imposed. We conclude by discussing the economic and policy implications of the country‐level inequality of MNEs’ environmental impacts within the EU.
“…Several detailed, high quality global Multi-Regional Input-Output models exist that integrate national tables with global trade data and extend them with a large array of environmental and social indicators 88,89 . Aggregated monetary IO tables and detailed physical process descriptions https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0225-2 were combined to so-called hybrid models 90,91 .…”
Recent high-level agreements such as the Paris climate accord or the Sustainable Development Goals aim at mitigating climate change, ecological degradation and biodiversity loss while pursuing social goals such as reducing hunger or poverty. Systemic approaches bridging natural and social sciences are required to support these agendas. The surging human use of biophysical resources (materials, energy) results from the pursuit of social and economic goals, while it also drives global environmental change. Socio-metabolic research links the study of socioeconomic processes with biophysical processes and thus plays a pivotal role for understanding societynature interactions. It includes a broad range of systems science approaches for measuring, analyzing and modelling of biophysical stocks and flows as well as the services they provide to society. Here we outline and systematize major socio-metabolic research traditions that study the biophysical basis of economic activity: urban metabolism, the multi-scale integrated assessment of societal and ecosystem metabolism, biophysical economics, material and energy flow analysis, and environmentally extended input-output analysis. Examples from recent research demonstrate strengths and weaknesses of socio-metabolic research. We discuss future research directions that could also help to enrich related fields.
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