Economy-wide Material Flow Accounting Research Articles

Compilation of an economy-wide material flow database for 14 stock-building materials in 177 countries from 1900 to 2016

International datasets on economy-wide material flows currently fail to comprehensively cover the quantitatively most important materials and countries, to provide centennial coverage and to differentiate between processing stages. These data gaps hamper research and policy on resource use. Herein, we present and document the data processing and compilation procedures applied to develop a novel economy-wide database of primary stock-building material flows systematically covering 177 countries from 1900- 2016. The main methodological novelty is the consistent integration of material flow accounting and analysis principles and thereby addresses limitations in terms of transparency, data quality and uncertainty treatment. The database systematically discerns four processing stages from raw materials extraction, to processing of raw and semi-finished products, to manufacturing of stock-building materials. Included materials are concrete, asphalt, bricks, timber products, paper, iron & steel, aluminium, copper, lead, zinc, other metals, plastics, container and flat glass. The database is compiled using international and national data sources, using a transparent and consistent 10-step procedure, as well as a systematic uncertainty assessment. Apart from a detailed documentation of the data compilation, validations of the database using data from previous studies and additional uncertainty estimates are presented.• Systematically compiled historical database of primary stock-building material flows for 177 countries.• Consistent integration of economy-wide material flow accounting and detailed material flow analysis principles.• Methodological enhancements in terms of transparency, data quality and uncertainty treatment.

Proposal for a new compilation system for metal ores in economy wide material flow accounting

AbstractThe authors of this article propose a major revision of the processes used for assembling the metal ores component of economy wide material flow accounts (EW‐MFA). The case for doing this is built by describing in detail important shortcomings of current metal ores reporting systems, introducing the key features of the revised system being proposed, and then illustrating the way in which the new system both solves old shortcomings and adds important new capacities. The new capacities added are of particular interest with regard to organizing the data required for a range of practical resource and environmental monitoring and management tasks, at national and smaller scale. The various components of the case for change are explained largely using illustrative examples. The direct motivations behind this work are twofold. First, the proposed system will improve the accuracy and fitness for current uses of the metal ores accounts being assembled. Second, and more importantly, the additional capabilities of the revised system as a resource and environmental management tool will make the process of assembling EW‐MFA accounts more clearly relevant to the concerns of developing countries, which are increasingly being prevailed upon to compile these accounts. In addition to the direct benefits of improved resources and environmental management that should be enabled by the revised system, it is expected that expanding the utility derived from the EW‐MFA process will provide a stronger incentive for its institutionalization and maintenance by individual nations.

Characterization of resource consumption and efficiency trends in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan: Economy-wide biotic and abiotic material flow accounting from 1978 to 2017

This study, conducted as a first try, explores the resource metabolism in three main economies in South Asia (in terms of both scale and growing rate of economy) namely Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, with a standard economy-wide material flow accounting approach using the most updated data from 1978 to 2017. In detail, resource consumption patterns, resource efficiency and productivity, trade related issues, as well as macro-policies affecting regional resource utilization were analyzed in-depth. Results highlighted that, in general, rapid consumption of imported resources, especially construction minerals, fossil fuels, and industrial minerals has emerged. Domestic material consumption per capita increased by 81%, 93% and 46% during 1978–2017 in the three countries, respectively, due to the living standards enhancement, improved urban infrastructure as well as rapid industrial development. With rapidly growing resource consumption, improvements in resource productivity were still low compared with mature economies like Japan and United States. It was 410.7 USD/t for Bangladesh, followed by India (358.7 USD/t) and Pakistan (275.0 USD/t), as of 2017. One critical finding was that resource intensive production (e.g., primary materials, textile and agricultural products etc.) was driving most of the bilateral trade among the three countries, which resulted in lower overall resource productivity. The other critical insight was the future increasing pressure on regional and global resource competition, according to the revealed rising inflow of foreign resources in the studied countries. Finally, the macro-policy analysis highlighted that the impacts of environmental protection and resource efficiency policies were far from enough. And, lower per capita GDP of this region was still a significant impediment for integrated environmental and resources management. Higher focus on resource productivity, from a policy perspective, on agricultural and industrial sectors is highly recommended to forward beneficial implications for the selected countries.

Environmental impacts of domestic resource extraction in China

ABSTRACT Introduction: The rapid development of economy has led to extensive raw material consumption and relevant environmental damage in China. To analyze environmental impacts and identify materials resulting in these environmental effects via raw material extraction, we combine economy-wide material flow accounting and life-cycle analysis methods to estimate environmental impacts of Chinese domestic extraction (DE) during the period of 1992–2015. The relationship between these increasing environmental impacts and Chinese GDP was also explored by decoupling analysis. Outcomes: Results show that Chinese DE increased by 372% during 1992–2015. The global warming potential, abiotic depletion potential, and respiratory inorganics of Chinese DE increased by 195%, 46%, and 408%, respectively. In terms of specific materials, extraction of iron ores, gravel and sand, and coal induced the most environmental impacts. The relationship between environmental impacts and Chinese GDP/DE was characterized by relative decoupling. Conclusion: To minimize the environmental impacts of extraction, we recommend that the Chinese government improve its extraction techniques and reduce excess demand for materials with large extraction such as iron ores, gravel and sand, and coal. We also recommend researching alternative materials for scarce resources like molybdenum, gold, and fluorite.

Integrating Material Stock Dynamics Into Economy-Wide Material Flow Accounting: Concepts, Modelling, and Global Application for 1900–2050

Assessing progress towards environmental sustainability requires a robust and systematic knowledge base. Economy-wide material flow accounting (ew-MFA) is an established method to monitor resource use across scales and its headline indicators are widely used in policy. However, ew-MFA is currently limited by its empirical focus on annual flows of material and energy, because it neglects the pivotal role of in-use material stocks of manufactured capital. Explicitly integrating in-use stocks enables new insights into a range of Ecological Economics' topics, such as the biophysical assessment of socio-economic systems, the circular economy and stock-flow consistent scenarios.Herein, we conceptually and practically expand the ew-MFA framework towards jointly addressing material flows, in-use stocks of manufactured capital and waste, using a fully consistent dynamic model of Material Inputs, Stocks and Outputs (MISO-model). We review the stock modelling literature, propose a novel distinction of stock-driven versus inflow-driven approaches and situate the MISO-model as the latter. We then investigate the global dynamics of socio-metabolic flows and in-use stocks from 1900 to 2014, explore model sensitivities and quantify and attribute uncertainty. Two exemplary scenarios are presented. Through these innovations for ew-MFA, we enable a dynamic and comprehensive assessment of resource use, stocks and all wastes in the socio-economic metabolism.

Providing an economy-wide monitoring framework for the circular economy in Austria: Status quo and challenges

The circular economy (CE) concept is gaining momentum among industry, politics and academia, putting forward a number of claims about environmental and climate-related benefits. Recently, the European Union has enacted a policy package calling for a transition from linear- towards circular production cycles across its Member States by 2050. The majority of research so far has focused on the micro- and meso-level, investigating CE implications on the product- and firm-level. On the national level however, a CE monitoring framework has yet to be developed.To take up this challenging task, we develop and apply an economy-wide monitoring framework to the case of Austria, by substantially extending previous work linking official data from economy-wide material flow accounting (ew-MFA), with waste and emission statistics. Herein, we present results of our circularity assessment for the year 2014. We find, that Austria exhibits a 8.5% share of secondary raw materials in processed materials (Input socioeconomic cycling rate - ISCr), while the share of recycled materials in interim outputs (IntOut)) is at 16.8% (Output socioeconomic cycling rate - OSCr). Challenges to the robustness of those estimates may be grounded in gaps in data availability and reporting both at the input and output side, which need to be harmonized for achieving an effective, combined CE monitoring. Furthermore, we find that there is a strong nexus between the CE and energy use and that the CE subsequently could contribute to climate change mitigation.

Measuring material efficiency: A review of the historical evolution of indicators, methodologies and findings

Increasing material efficiency, or material productivity, is essential for decoupling resource depletion and associated environmental pressures from economic development. This paper reviews the historical evolution of indicators monitoring material efficiency, their underpinning methodologies and major findings in the past three decades. Early studies investigated the material-economy relationship through intensity of use (IU) of some selected single materials. Economy-wide material flow accounting (EW-MFA) established a standardized framework for aggregating overall material inputs into an economy. Consumption-based material footprint (MF) analysis extended the system boundary to cover global resource extraction along supply chains to satisfy final consumption. Studies on material cycles (MC), especially metal cycles, further helped trace all major life cycle stages of anthropogenic material use, with the capability to account for in-use stocks of materials and products. Impact-based indicators investigate the opportunities to reduce negative environmental, social and economic impacts of material use, which is the ultimate purpose of improving material efficiency. Monitoring material efficiency with different indicators might lead to very different conclusions regarding a society’s dependence on material and its dematerialization trend. We present a generalized framework for constructing all kinds of material efficiency/productivity indicators and make the case that election of indicators should be problem-oriented and policy-relevant.

Material Flow Accounting: Measuring Global Material Use for Sustainable Development

The growing extraction of natural resources and the waste and emissions resulting from their use are directly or indirectly responsible for humanity approaching or even surpassing critical planetary boundaries. A sound knowledge base of society's metabolism, i.e., the physical exchange processes between society and its natural environment and the production and consumption processes involved, is essential to develop strategies for more sustainable resource use. Economy-wide material flow accounting (MFA) is a framework that provides consistent compilations of the material inputs to national economies, changes in material stocks within the economic system, and material outputs to other economies and the environment. We present the conceptual foundations of MFA and derived indicators and review the current state of knowledge of global patterns and trends of extraction, trade, and use of materials. We discuss the relation of material use and economic development and the decoupling of material use from economic growth in the context of sustainable resource use policies.

Total residual output flows of the economy: Methodology and application in the case of the Czech Republic

The article goes beyond standard emission and waste statistics and elaborates upon total residual output flows of economies based on economy-wide material flow accounting and analysis (EW-MFA). This concept allows for evaluation of total environmental pressures related to material output flows and assessing the potential trade-offs if environmental policies are more successful in some fields than in others. We provide basic information on EW-MFA and its output accounts and indicators and describe in detail the methodology of their compilation. The methodology is then applied to the Czech Republic for the period 1990–2014. All major components of residual output flows, i.e. emission and waste flow, dissipative use flow and unused domestic extraction accounts, as well as domestic processed output (DPO) and total domestic output (TDO) indicators, went down in the monitored period. We identified a few major driving forces behind this decrease, including changes in the structure of the economy, changes in the structure of TPES, technological change, advances in waste management, and changes in the agricultural system of the Czech Republic. The results further indicate that another decrease in DPO and TDO indicators is at stake, as Czech economic policies are aimed at maintaining the current relatively high proportion of manufacturing industries in the economy.

Incorporation of recycling flows into economy-wide material flow accounting and analysis: A case study for the Czech Republic

Economy-wide material flow accounting and analysis (EW-MFA) is considered a convenient tool for monitoring the vast range of issues related to the consumption of materials. As an increase in recycling is considered a crucial way of decreasing environmental pressures from this consumption, it makes sense to develop an indicator based on EW-MFA which would incorporate recycling flows. A prominent example of such an indicator is the cyclical use rate, which was developed by the Japanese Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society.We calculated this indicator for the Czech Republic for 2002–2011 and proved that it can also be calculated for countries other than Japan, even though we encountered some unclear methodological issues related to specific features of the Czech waste management system. We further developed two modifications of the indicator taking into consideration that one purpose of the cyclical use rate is to express the ratio of consumption of secondary (recycled) materials and primary raw materials. We discussed these modifications and showed that overall cyclical use rate in the Czech Republic lags behind Japan both in terms of absolute value and trend development, although the indicator is higher for biomass in the Czech Republic. We also showed that this unfavorable evaluation is in contradiction with some classic waste indicators, such as treatment of waste by main treatment methods which is favorably evaluated in the Czech Republic. We concluded that it would be advisable to analyze measures for increasing recycling rates introduced by Japan and assess their possible transposition into the Czech Republic's institutional and legal framework for waste management.

The importance of raw material equivalents in economy-wide material flow accounting and its policy dimension

► Material flow indicators, which exclude raw material equivalents, provide incorrect information for decision making. ► The Czech production system is highly dependent on metal ores from abroad. ► There is an unequal distribution of environmental pressures between the Czech Republic and its trading partners. ► Czech policies have so far not sufficiently addressed the two points above. ► Those two points can also hold for other developed industrial countries. This article presents a comparison of indicators based on an economy-wide material flow analysis, namely imports, exports, domestic material consumption, raw material equivalents of imports, raw material equivalents of exports and raw material consumption. These indicators were calculated for the Czech Republic for 1995–2010 using, besides an economy-wide material flow analysis, the hybrid input–output life cycle assessment method, which allows for a calculation of raw material equivalents of imports and exports. The results show that a calculation of indicators, which include raw material equivalents, is useful, as it provides some important information which is not obvious from imports, exports and domestic material consumption indicators. We have proved that the latter group of indicators provide the incorrect information regarding the environmental pressure trend related to material flows, underestimate the overall pressure related to foreign trade and provide incorrect information on the importance of various material categories in particular indicators. Consequently, in the case of the Czech Republic, the implications stemming from these points such as the very high dependency of the Czech production system on metal ores from abroad and a rather unequal distribution of environmental pressures between the Czech Republic and its trading partners have not been more thoroughly addressed by Czech economic, environmental and sustainability policies so far and present unresolved issues which will have to be dealt with in the future.

Methodology and Indicators of Economy‐wide Material Flow Accounting

Summary This contribution presents the state of the art of economywide material flow accounting. Starting from a brief recollection of the intellectual and policy history of this approach, we outline system definition, key methodological assumptions, and derived indicators. The next section makes an effort to establish data reliability and uncertainty for a number of existing multinational (European and global) material flow accounting (MFA) data compilations and discusses sources of inconsistencies and variations for some indicators and trends. The results show that the methodology has reached a certain maturity: Coefficients of variation between databases lie in the range of 10% to 20%, and correlations between databases across countries amount to an average R 2 of 0.95. After discussing some of the research frontiers for further methodological development, we conclude that the material flow accounting framework and the data generated have reached a maturity that warrants material flow indicators to complement traditional economic and demographic information in providing a sound basis for discussing national and international policies for sustainable resource use.

Economy-wide material flow indicators in the Czech Republic: trends, decoupling analysis and uncertainties

Material and energy flows (together with human appropriation of land) are considered the key cause of environmental problems. This paper describes the application of economy-wide material flow accounting and analysis to the economy of the Czech Republic for 1990-2002. The results show a decrease of material intensity and decoupling of the economic growth from environmental pressure. The second part of the paper treats an important issue of uncertainties related to economy-wide material flow indicators in the Czech Republic. The results point out that the high uncertainties related to some material flow indicators may be an obstacle to their applicability.