“Exergy, ecology and democracy - concepts of a vital society or a proposal for an exergy tax” 30 years after - Part 2: Exergy and U.N. sustainable development goals

Abstract

Thirty years ago, Goran Wall published ?Exergy Ecology Democracy - Concepts of a vital society or a proposal for an exergy tax?. This paper discusses this milestone contribution by Wall. It has traced a path toward economic, environmental and societal sustainability and proposed exergy as a robust indicator for measuring progress. This paper is divided into two parts. The first focuses on better understanding Wall?s role in today?s scenario. This second part presents different methods that allow using exergy to assess the sustainability of economic, industrial and societal processes. First, it presents an example showing the inadequacy of domestic material consumption (DMC) in evaluating the sustainability of import-export operations. Second, how exergy can apply to increase the significance of DMC has been discussed. A new indicator that allows coupling with DMC has been defined to improve the information delivered by DMC and make it a more effective sustainability indicator. Third, some ecological indicators are discussed. The use of exergy to integrate DMC and assess lifecycle and polluting emissions into the environment has been discussed. Finally, an effective exergy tax proposal is presented as an instrument for stimulating an effective transition toward sustainability of consumption and people?s habits.