Greenhouse gas emissions, resource use and environmental efficiency of economies from a life-cycle perspective

This paper illustrates the results of two environmentally extended input-output applications based on environmental-economic accounts concerning the attribution of environmental flows to final demand. First, total (direct and indirect) GHG emissions of the Italian vertically integrated industries from 1995 to 2008 are presented, including emissions avoided thanks to final and intermediate imports. In this case, the classical IO domestic technology assumption is conveniently integrated with supplementary data in consideration of the inexistence or non-representativeness of some primary industries in Italy. Then, estimates of the Italian material flows in terms of Raw Material Equivalents (RME) for the period 2000-2010 are presented building on the ongoing Eurostat RME project. RME indicators provide a valuable methodological improvement with respect to the current EW-MFA aggregate indicators, as they overcome the asymmetry between the heterogeneous parts by which the indicators currently in use are produced (flows from nature and traded flows). In order to derive such estimates, the environmental-economic accountingframework is fully exploited: the link between direct and indirect demand for raw materials on the one hand, and the final use of products on the other hand, is established through Leontiefs inter-industry interdependence model. The paper also proposes an in-depth analysis of the possible use of demand-based measures in the derivation of productivity indicators, focussing on resource productivity. In a policy setting where indirectflows are not neglected, raising carbon or resource productivity by transferring abroad of potential environmental burden is recognised as not being environmentally effective, i. e. as not leading to a reduction of pressures on a global scale. Moreover, we argue that the indicators used to measure productivity should use figures from National Accounts and from Environmental Satellite Accounts coherently.

environmental accounts, trade and environment, resource productivity, raw material equivalents, vertically integrated products, экологические счета, торговля и окружающая среда, ресурсная продуктивность, сырьевые эквиваленты, вертикально интегрированные продукты

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