Domestic Material Consumption Research Articles

The SDGs Provide Limited Evidence That Environmental Policies Are Delivering Multiple Ecological and Social Benefits

AbstractThe Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aiming for global targets by 2030, are tracked by a monitoring framework comprising 231 environmental, social, and economic indicators. The framework provides data to assess whether, across countries, environmental policies are: (a) Addressing environmental pressures, (b) Linked to environmental improvements, and (c) Linked with social benefits delivered by healthy environments. While several studies have analyzed the implementation and impacts of the SDGs, there remains a critical research gap in assessing the linkage between environmental policies and their potential to deliver multiple ecological and social benefits. This study examines the efficacy of environmental policies and their implications for global environmental health and social wellbeing. We use a generalized linear modeling approach to test for correlations between SDG indicators. We show that some environmental policies, particularly protected areas and sustainable forest certification, are linked with environmental improvements, mainly in forest and water ecosystems. However, we find no evidence that environmental improvements are linked with positive social impacts. Finally, environmental pressures, including freshwater withdrawal, domestic material consumption, and tourism, are linked with environmental degradation. Environmental policy responses are generally increasing across countries. Despite this, the state of the environment globally continues to decline. Governments must focus on understanding why environmental policies have not been sufficient to reverse environmental decline, particularly concerning the pressures that continue to degrade the environment. To better track progress toward sustainable development, we recommend that the SDG monitoring framework is supplemented with additional indicators on the state of the environment.

Energy and Circular Economy: Nexus beyond Concepts

Energy and materials are increasingly important in industrialized countries, and they impact the economy, sustainability, and people’s future. The purpose of this work was to study the relationship between energy and the circular economy using methods such as Pearson’s correlation and a principal component analysis. Thus, 12 strong correlations were found, with 5 of them between the following relevant variables from two different subjects: the correlations of the raw material consumption, the domestic material consumption, and the material import dependency with the final energy consumption in transport (0.81, 0.92, and 0.81); the correlation of the circular material use rate with the final energy consumption in households (0.70); and the correlation of the material import dependency with the final energy consumption in industry (0.89). The time series forecast was only conclusive for the waste generated, showing that it will increase in the next 10 years.

Linking the utilization of mineral resources and climate change: A novel approach with frequency domain analysis

Natural resources, climate change, and sustainable development are critical and simultaneously interrelated issues. This study investigates the interdependence between raw minerals material and sea level rise, considering the role of economic performance and material footprint employing wavelet locale multiple correlations from 1970 to 2019. The results provide strong evidence for cross-correlation of climate change with mineral resources, economic output, and domestic material consumption (biomass-fossil, metal, and non-metal) localized at the high frequency-time domain. However, the outcomes provide weak evidence for the association between bivariate time series at low frequency, which is a limitation in the short term. Based on the results, policymakers should implement effective environmental taxes and invest in cutting-edge technologies to optimize clean energy and mineral resources in a sustainable manner.

Material demand and material efficiency for sustainable development in the European Union countries: A stochastic frontier analysis

AbstractMaterials are of great importance as they are fundamentally integrated into many different critical topics, including green transition, technological progress, industrial emissions, and supply chains. Therefore, the amount of materials we demand and employ in the production process or how efficiently we use them become highly crucial. In this paper, we study the emerging role of materials with a special focus on the key role of material efficiency (ME) in climate mitigation. To this end, we empirically investigate the main determinant of material demand and evaluate the ME performance in the European Union (EU) countries over the period of 1995–2019 based on a four‐component Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) panel data approach that separates unobserved country effects from persistent and transient inefficiency. We obtain the following outcomes. First, material demand function estimates reveal that economic growth and energy consumption are the main drivers of domestic material consumption, highlighting the need for promoting sustainable energy and economic growth. Second, although the SFA‐based ME scores significantly vary across countries, transient inefficiency is the main source of overall inefficiency for most countries, suggesting that there is considerable potential for improvement in ME. While Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, and Slovenia improve their ME performance over time, the ME score of some other countries, such as Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Spain, and the Slovak Republic reveal an opposite outcome. Third, the results show that material intensity is not always a good proxy for ME.

A Modified Methodology for Regional Material Flow Analysis and its Application to Four Municipalities in China

The rapid economic development is inevitably accompanied with resource depletion and environment degradation. To understand the status of material metabolism and identify effective solutions for environmental protection in China, this study develops a novel and standardized methodology for accounting regional material flows. Compared with previous studies, the proposed methodology takes renewable energy into consideration and provides a more accurate estimation method for non-metallic minerals used for construction. Then, the proposed approach is used to assess the material metabolism of four municipalities in China during 1997-2017. The results show that the domestic extraction and domestic processed output experience an increasing trend and then appear to decrease at the end of study period. Furthermore, Chongqing consumes the largest amount of material with lowest resource utilization efficiency, while Shanghai is predicted to enjoy a generally decline in domestic material consumption per capita. Finally, some policy implications are achieved for sustainable development in China.

Biomass use and its implications for bioeconomy development: A resource efficiency perspective for the European countries

Increasing population and economic growth in Europe and the world are leading to growing demand for food, livestock feed, and energy, and consequently to growing negative impacts on the environment and climate change. Tensions and price fluctuations in international material supply chains have recently become an even greater challenge. As for biomass, its availability is limited due to land, water, human, and financial resources as well as the environmental boundaries. Therefore, efficiency of biomass use is becoming increasingly important; it is crucial to develop and apply integrated assessment frameworks for tracking progress in resource use efficiency that would allow comparing the efficiency of biomass and non-biomass use. This paper embarks on the analysis of biomass and non-biomass resource use in selected European countries over 2010–2019. The index decomposition analysis model is set up to decompose the changes in biomass consumption with respect to intensive and extensive drivers. Resource use efficiency is then assessed via the non-parametric frontier, taking into account the other inputs (labour and capital). The results suggest that biomass efficiency is higher than that of non-biomass materials. The efficiency scores suggest that further decoupling of domestic material consumption and economic growth is needed.

The impact of product and process innovation on abandoning fossil fuel energy consumption in low and middle income countries: consent towards carbon neutrality

The study used a sample of 43 low and middle-income countries for the time span of 14 years, i.e., from 2005 to 2018 with the objective to analyze the global fossil fuel market. The novelty of the study lies in its variable product and process innovation, study sample as well as the methodology adopted by the System GMM model. The fossil fuels demand in terms of Domestic material consumption of fossil fuel is regressed against 4 Energy and innovation, social and economic variables. The study employed System GMM model for estimation of results and FMOLS for robustness check. The results reveal that estimates for lag fossil fuels consumption, fossil fuel price and GDP are statistically significant and positive while estimates for patents are negative. The study suggests that low and middle income countries’ Government should focus on product and process innovation as a critical element while structuring their policy for climate change mitigation.

Towards Circular Economy: Unveiling Heterogeneous Effects of Government Policy Stringency, Environmentally Related Innovation, and Human Capital within OECD Countries

With reference to the existing literature, this paper investigates the heterogenous effect on the attainment of circular economy by government policies in the form of government stringency and government financial support, environmentally related innovations, and human capital. The study was carried out in 26 countries of the OECD from 2010–2019 using the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (PPML) model and data from Eurostat and OECD datasets. Indicators for the independent variables were non-market-based stringency, market-based subsidy, gross domestic expenditure on R&D by source of funds, R&D expenditure intramural, national expenditure on environmental protection environmental protection, environmentally related patents with co-inventors, and employees involved in education and training. The results revealed that a significant effect of government stringency in the form of non-market-based stringency, environmental innovation, government financing on R&D, and national expenditure on environmental protection have significant impact on the attainment of circular economy within OECD countries. Surprisingly, there was no significant effect of the market-based subsidy on domestic material consumption (dmc). We conclude that a blend of government policies is the effective means of achieving a circular economy.

Decoupling gross domestic product and consumption of raw materials: A macro-panel analysis

Over the last decades, industrializing countries have experienced economic growth, which coincided with an increase in the use of materials. In a finite world in terms of materials, the consumption of resources and the link with economic development is a challenge for economies. While most of literature relative to Material Kuznets Curve (MKC) and Environmental Kuznets Curve refers to the work of Grossman and Krueger (1991), the theory of inverted U-shaped consumption is older and can be traced from the work of Malenbaum (1978). Using a new indicator, the material footprint (MF), we want to estimate the material footprint-GDP per capita elasticity. To do so, we compare for the first-time four different methodologies and two classes of econometric models (robust to reverse/simultaneous causality) in the same empirical study. We find neither sign of absolute decoupling between GDP and raw material consumption nor saturation of the demand for raw material. This conclusion does not change when we observe subcomponents of MF or other indicators like Domestic Material Consumption or Domestic Extraction. Therefore, in the current state, our economies and the way we achieve economic development are not compatible with finite natural resources.

“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

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.

Using Material Flow and Stock Indicators to Evaluate Urban Allometry: Evidence from the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region

The growing urban population is intensifying global resource shortages. It is essential for scholars and policymakers to better understand the material-based metabolism of cities for sustainable urban resource management. Taking the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region of China as a representative case, this study quantifies domestic material consumption (DMC) and material stock (MS) and reveals the dynamics of the material-based urban metabolism of cities during 2000 to 2017 based on the allometric scaling law. The results show that the DMC and MS of each city exhibited an overall increasing trend during 2000 to 2017, with Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Handan, and Tangshan having larger material bases than the other cities. Cities at different stages of development usually follow different material-based allometric scaling law relationships. Most cities in this region (9 out of 13) follow a superlinear relationship, indicating excessive consumption of resources in these cities. The scaling coefficient of Beijing is most similar to the value (0.75) that has been observed in many types of biological research, which suggests that Beijing has reached a relative stabilization stage of development. This study provides key points for future resource allocation and industrial optimization related to urban material metabolism in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region. The findings of this study can enrich the theoretical and empirical bases for urban allometry research and provide urban managers with additional insights for consideration to achieve sustainable urban resource management.

Exergy, ecology and democracy - concepts of a vital society or a proposal for an exergy tax 30 years after - Part 1: Generalities

Goran Wall?s "exergy, ecology, and democracy ? concepts of a vital society or a proposal for an exergy tax? has come a long way since its presentation in 1992. Wall has extended the thermodynamics to the sustainability analysis of economic, environmental and societal models. The authors of this paper aim to discuss Wall?s intuitions in today?s scenario. Governments are assuming increasing measures against climate change and toward sustainability. However, these measures do not affect the concentration of GHG and global heating. It is an evident failure from a thermodynamic point of view. The economic indicators used by governments to measure the progress toward UN. Sustainability development goals and the Paris agreement reveal a scarce consistency. One of the most used is ?domestic material consumption?. It accounts for the mass balance of the materials entering or exiting a national economic system. However, it lacks consistency and delivers insufficient information because it neglects the impacts of import-export. As Wall shows, more effective and consistent indicators are necessary to account for sustainability. The most relevant is exergy, which has been presented and discussed widely.

Unapređenje konkurentnosti i ekonomskog rasta u Republici Srbiji putem koncepta cirkularne ekonomije

The circular economy is a closed circular system in which material and energy losses are converted into resources that may be used for alternative objectives. Inextricably connected with sustainable development, it is primarily concerned with reducing material and energy losses. The optimal course of action would be to eradicate these losses and repurpose materials. Therefore, biodegradable items are used and commodities are disposed, reused and recycled. The primary aim of this study is to examine the impact of energy generation and non-energy materials on the gross domestic product (GDP) of Serbia and other OECD member states. The objective is to ascertain which energy or material production sector is more significant in GDP to enhance competitiveness. The findings reveal the present state of economic growth and the areas that need improvement to foster more business competitiveness. The Adaptive Neural Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) as it is well-suited for statistical analysis of highly nonlinear data. The most significant determinant of GDP in Serbia is the proportion of domestic material consumption devoted to the consumption of non-metallic minerals. Among OECD members, however, metal consumption as a proportion of domestic total material consumption is the most significant predictor of GDP. Additionally, the findings indicate that the ideal combination for forecasting GDP using two parameters is the sum of non-energy material output and total municipal trash generation. The findings may exemplify optimal strategies for incorporating the circular economy principle into operations to enhance corporate competitiveness, mitigate energy and material waste, and minimize adverse environmental effects.

An Evaluation of Circular Economy Development in the Baltic States

Abstract Research background: The fact that all resources are not infinite and the needs of society are steadily increasing, new ways of producing, consuming and waste disposal should be adopted. A circular economy as a modern alternative to a linear economy became one of the priorities of the European Union in order to create a modern, resource-efficient and competitive system. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to present the concept of a circular economy and the justification of its implementation based on a literature review. The article focuses on determining the factors of a circular economy and evaluating its importance in the Baltic States. In other words, the main aim of the article is to highlight the factors of a circular economy and assess its significance. Research methodology: A panel regression analysis was used in order to evaluate which indicator of the selected circular economy factors is the most important. Results: The survey reveals that waste electrical and electronic equipment has the most significant potential for increased circular material use rate in the Baltic States. All electrical and electronic equipment should be designed so that it would be possible to repair and reuse it to extend the product life cycle and reduce the carbon footprint. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in conjunction with increasing the usage of renewable energy could increase resource productivity and domestic material consumption (DMC) and ensure Baltic States’ independence in the energy sector through offshore wind farms that have the region’s most considerable potential. Novelty: There is a lack of studies conducted in the Baltic States focused on circular economy development using panel data. Most of the previous studies were focused on the European Union as a whole or individual countries. This study presents a deeper analysis of circular economy development in the Baltic States.

Towards achieving net zero emission targets and sustainable development goals, can long-term material footprint strategies be a useful tool?

This study analyzes material footprint (MF), which can be essential in achieving net zero emission targets and sustainable development goals for EURO-26 countries. Increasing the efficiency of MF rather than domestic material consumption is more effective in reducing emissions. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between MF, economic growth, and CO2 emissions for EURO-26 countries. For empirical analysis, second-generation panel cointegration tests and long-term coefficient estimators, which consider the cross-sectional dependence, are employed. The empirical results indicate that (i) there is a long-term relationship between the variables and (ii) MF increases the CO2 emissions. However, the positive relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions is statistically insignificant. According to the individual results, while the impact of MF on CO2 emissions is negative in developed countries, MF increases CO2 emissions in developing countries in general. Overall findings reveal that long-term material footprint strategies should be implemented in EURO-26 countries and material footprint policies can be used as a strategic tool to achieve net zero emission targets and sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Decoupling is not enough - Evidence from fossil fuel use in over 130 countries

This study offers an in-depth analysis of decoupling economic growth from fossil fuel use in over 130 countries between 1992 and 2019. It also examines four potential fossil fuel use determinants: urbanisation, industrialisation, trade openness, and the share of renewable energy sources. To examine the analysed relationship, the mixed effect models are applied for the trend components of the series. Fossil fuel use is represented by two measures: domestic material consumption and material footprint. Countries are either clustered into four groups of human development tiers measured by the HDI index or their income is considered. The results reveal that a stronger decoupling, with an elasticity of 0.42, is obtained for domestic material consumption than for the material footprint (0.72). The degree of decoupling is more homogeneous among groups of countries in the case of material footprint. The correlation between decoupling strength and reference fossil fuel use is negative and very strong (around −0.97). As well-being increases, the sensitivity of fossil fuel use to economic growth tends to weaken; nevertheless, wealthier countries consume more fossil fuels. The development of renewable energy sources is the only factor leading to a reduction in fossil fuel use in countries at all levels of development.

Efficient Use of Critical Raw Materials for Optimal Resource Management in EU Countries

The European Commission has established a Critical Raw Materials List (CRM) for the European Union (EU), which is subject to regular review and updating. CRMs are needed in many key industries such as automotive, steel, aerospace, renewable energy, etc. To address this issue, we studied publicly available data from databases developed by the EU for monitoring the progress of individual countries in key areas for the development of society. The paper analyzes indicators of import reliance, net additions to stock, domestic material consumption (DMC), resource productivity, and circular material use rate. Prospective products and technologies, in electromobility, digitalization, Industry 4.0, and energy transformation, are changing and increasing the demand for raw materials. The aim of this article is to look at the ways forward in order to use critical raw materials as efficiently as possible while at the same time ensuring the optimal economy of the countries. From the sources and databases of data available for the EU, we analyzed a number of variables and suggested options for future developments in the efficient use of critical raw materials. We defined what we believed to be the optimal management means in relation to critical raw materials and worked backwards to find a path to efficient use of critical raw materials.

Romania’s Perspectives on the Transition to the Circular Economy in an EU Context

The main objective of the paper is to highlight Romania’s perspectives on the transition process towards the circular economy, in respect with the tendencies registered at the level of the European Union. To this end, our methodology involved the selection of four indicators, each one being viewed as representative for one area of interest specified in the circular economy monitoring framework established by the European Commission, namely: Generation of waste excluding major mineral wastes per domestic material consumption; Recycling rate of municipal waste; Circular material use rate; Gross investment in tangible goods—percentage of gross domestic product. On the basis of data series provided by the Eurostat database, our study employed a quantitative approach, by using the econometric analysis of time series. For each selected indicator, time series-specific approximation and prediction models were constructed; against this background, we were able to reveal accurate forecasts of the analysed variables, with respect to different time horizons. Detailed analysis of the data series resulting from the research proved that on the long run, there are favourable premises for improving Romania’s performance in adopting the circular economic model, on the basis of low values for the indicator “Generation of waste excluding major mineral wastes per domestic material consumption”, of an ascending trend for the indicator ”Circular material use rate” and of maintaining the values of the “Gross investment in tangible goods—percentage of gross domestic product” indicator above the EU-27 average.

Nepal's domestic material consumption-projection and causal impact of external financial inflows, services value-added, population, and economic growth.

Literature on material flow accounting has increasingly emphasized the need for an equitable resource allocation for least developed countries (LDCs) considering their future growth and the social outcomes (e.g., poverty alleviation) they intend to deliver. This paper aims to project Nepal’s domestic material consumption (DMC)—scale and structure for different economic growth scenarios. We also investigate the causal impact of exogenous factors: (1) external financial inflows, such as the remittance and official development assistance (ODA); (2) services value-added; (3) population; and (4) economic growth on DMC by material types (e.g. biomass, fossil fuels, non-metallic minerals, and metal ores). We use the R tools, ridge regression and its machine learning algorithms, the autoregressive-distributed lag approach, and the abovementioned variables’ time-series data between 1993 and 2017 as methodological and data tools. While Nepal’s absolute DMC will increase even in the low-growth scenario, we found that the biomass-based DMC prevalent in many LDCs, including Nepal, will be non-metallic minerals-based—a material consumption trait of existing middle-income and emerging economies. Despite this, the United Nations’ LDC graduation growth pathway, often assumed to deliver sustainable development objectives by policymakers in LDCs, including Nepal, is material intensive. The increase in the gross domestic product per capita, remittance, and ODA cause a rise in DMC because of their strong correlation and causal relationship. In these circumstances, we suggest policy measures that can leverage present consumption-oriented remittances as a source of investment in up-scaling small-scale modern renewable energy technologies across the residential sector, particularly in rural areas. We suggest this policy measure considering the future rise in non-metallic minerals and the challenges to reduce it because of the rising urbanization.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-021-18050-9.

Drivers of changes in natural resources consumption of Central African countries

<abstract> <p>Consumption of nine different natural resources has kept an increasing trend in Central African countries from 1970 to 2018. This study therefore, investigates the changes and major determinants that have driven the patterns of resource use in six Central African countries over almost fifty years. We used the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method to quantitatively analyze different effects of technology, affluence and population associated with domestic material consumption (DMC) of Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Gabon from 1970 to 2018. We further subdivided the affluence effect into energy productivity (GDP/energy) and per capita energy use (energy/cap) and conducted a four-factor LMDI analysis of Cameroon as a case study. The results highlight that decreased affluence during certain periods has slowed down DMC growth in four of six Central African countries except for Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, while significant technology offset in Equatorial Guinea reduces DMC growth by 28%. Population remains the main positive driving factor of DMC growth, with the highest share in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The case of Cameroon shows that technological intensity and energy intensity play different roles in changing DMC. This study confirms that the rising population and economic growth, combined with a gradual improvement in technology in the region are insufficient to reduce natural resource use. A stringent management plan of natural resources for Central African countries should focus on technological improvement while remaining balanced with the future demand for socioeconomic development in the coming decades.</p> </abstract>