Assessing the environmental impacts of EU consumption at macro-scale

Abstract

Sustainable Consumption and Production is one of the leading principle towards reducing environmental impacts globally. This study aims at combining Environmentally-Extended Input-Output Analysis (using EXIOBASE 3) with up-to-date impact assessment models to quantify the environmental impacts induced by final consumption in the EU Member States in 2011. The environmental extensions are characterized in 14 environmental impact categories out of the 16 used in the Environmental Footprint life cycle impact assessment method. A contribution analysis of key products and services as well as emissions and resources, which drive the environmental impacts of EU consumption, is conducted. Environmental impacts are mainly induced along the supply-chain of products and services. Several expenditures relative to services represent large shares both in the total final consumption and in the 14 impacts under study, despite a relatively low impact intensity. Food products, in particular meat and dairy products, are identified as key contributors regarding acidification, eutrophication, land use, and water use, and to a lower extent climate change. Finally, several manufactured products, raw materials and basic products respectively importantly contribute to impacts on human toxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity and resource uses. The total volume of final consumption expenditures per EU Member State appears a key explanatory variable to most of the impacts embodied in their consumption, yet to a lower extent regarding water use and fossils resource use. Finally, the current limitations in using EXIOBASE 3 for environmental impact assessment are discussed, with specific attention to EXIOBASE environmental extensions and to the case study on EU consumption. Since the classification of emissions and resources for impact assessment requires a number of assumptions that may influence the results, a sensitivity analysis is performed to exemplify some of the key issues relative to the characterization of impacts based on EXIOBASE environmental extensions.

No mining activities, no environmental impacts? Assessing the carbon footprint of metal requirements induced by the consumption of a country with almost no mines

“…These tables are the inputs to the Leontiev's equations (Leontief, 1970) applied to IO frameworks standing that the total output is the sum between intermediate consumptions and final demands. As mentioned by severeal authors, this equality is also valid for MRIO framework (see for example Peters, 2008;Cadarso, Monsalve and Arce, 2018;Beylot et al, 2019) leading to Equation 1:…”

“…When considering other impacts such as ecotoxicity, human toxicity or mineral resource use, the contribution of metals to French environmental footprints might be greater than the ones obtained for carbon footprint. For example, Beylot et al (2019) show that, for the European final consumption, metal containing products carry the highest burdens related to ecotoxicity, toxicity and mineral resource use and Ottelin et al and Wiedmann et al show that the construction sector contributes also highly to material footprint (i.e. to the total mineral resource use) of nations (Wiedmann et al, 2015;Ottelin, Heinonen and Junnila, 2018).…”

Carbon budgets for buildings: harmonising temporal, spatial and sectoral dimensions

“…Apportioning the global (or country) budget using a consumption-perspective (Beylot et al 2019;Cabernard, Pfister, & Hellweg 2019) brings the issue of appropriate needs into focus (e.g. mobility, housing/shelter, nutrition; Creutzig et al 2018).…”

The Differences across Future Teachers Regarding Attitudes on Social Responsibility for Sustainable Development

“…Thus, people at an individual level can be responsible agents of SD through the lifestyle they choose to adopt. As a way of example, choosing certain types of tourism and food consumption, purchasing items with the cheapest prices or fashion trends (such as new technologies or clothing items), taking care of objects already possessed to increase their longevity, selecting products that generate less waste, and recycling or implementing energy consumption habits are actions that can be targeted in daily life to take care of the environment individually and be socially responsible for it [7,[9][10][11][12][13][14] From an economic development perspective, a consumer with Individual Social Responsibility for Sustainable Development (ISRSD) may be able to condition the economic model of companies, since the production and sale of products vary according to the social demand [15][16][17][18]. Likewise, an individual may also act to promote Corporate Social Responsibility for Sustainable Development (CSRSD) as a member of a company, which could contribute to the well-being of society [19].…”