Impacts Embodied in Global Trade Flows

Abstract

The steep and unprecedented growth of globalisation and trade over the last few decades has led to accelerated economic activity with mixed outcomes. Continued economic growth and alleviation of poverty in many countries has been accompanied with an overall increase and shifting of environmental pressures between countries. Industrial ecology research has contributed decisively to the knowledge around impacts in trade. This chapter summarises the latest empirical fi ndings on global change instigated by trade, discusses new methodological developments and refl ects on the sustainability of globalised production and consumption. Signifi cant proportions of up to 64 % of total environmental, social and economic impacts can be linked to international trade. Impacts embodied in trade have grown much more rapidly than their total global counterparts. Policies aimed at increasing the sustainability of production and consumption need to go beyond domestic regulation and seek international cooperation to target production practices for exports worldwide.

The Corruption Footprints of Nations

“…; Ivanova et al. ; Wiedmann ). These iPhones would have been shipped to Apple Inc., then distributed all over the world, thus carrying a corruption footprint to the rest of world.…”

“…In this work, we link employment affected by corruption with centers of consumption by using multiregional input-output (MRIO) analysis (Leontief and Strout 1963). This method has been used previously at multiple scales (Hubacek et al 2014) for analyzing the supply-chain effects of international trade on various environmental and social indicators, such as carbon dioxide emissions Kanemoto et al 2014), scarce water (Lenzen et al 2013a), water use (Feng et al 2011), air pollutants , land use (Hubacek and Giljum 2003;Yu et al 2013), material use (Giljum and Hubacek 2004;Wiedmann et al 2015), species threats (Lenzen et al 2012b; Moran et al 2016), bad labor practices (Simas et al 2014a(Simas et al , 2014b, social inequality (Alsamawi et al 2014;Wiedmann 2016), occupational health and safety (Alsamawi, 2015), civil war , and global value chains (Los et al 2015). It is used in our study to analyze international supplychain effects in terms of corruption.…”

“…In 2014, several managers at Foxconn Technology were arrested for soliciting millions of U.S. dollars in bribes from suppliers of iPhone parts (ZDnet 2014), which meant that the final product was tainted by this corruption; or, in other words, the corruption became "embodied" in the product. Such a supply-chain perspective is commonly understood as a footprint (Wood et al 2014;Ivanova et al 2015;Wiedmann 2016). These iPhones would have been shipped to Apple Inc., then distributed all over the world, thus carrying a corruption footprint to the rest of world.…”

The impacts of data deviations between MRIO models on material footprints: A comparison of EXIOBASE, Eora, and ICIO

“…Methods based on various forms of environmentally extended input–output analysis (IOA), methods applying material intensity coefficients derived from process analyses and life cycle assessment (LCA), as well as hybrid approaches combining elements of both IOA and LCA (Lutter, Giljum, & Bruckner, ; Schoer, Wood, Arto, & Weinzettel, ; Wiesen & Wirges, ). The development of Global Multiregional Input–Output (GMRIO) databases with high country and sector detail, such as Eora and EXIOBASE, has provided a particular boost for various footprint assessments on the global level in recent years (Giljum, Bruckner, & Lutter, ; Tukker et al., ; Tukker, Giljum, & Wood, ; Wiedmann, ; Wiedmann & Lenzen, ).…”

Is the emperor wearing new clothes? A social assessment of the European Union 2007–2013 financial framework

“…In our research, changes in final demand are estimates of the expenditures embodied in European Funds from 2007 to 2013. E-MRIO is the best tool for unraveling the intricacies of international supply chains and a suitable, accurate way of measuring global footprints; indeed, it is presently the norm for undertaking such calculations (Wiedmann et al, 2011;Dietzenbacher et al, 2013;Wiedmann, 2015).…”