Production-based Accounting Research Articles

That-trace effects in Najdi Arabic L2 learners of English

Abstract The current study is a partial replication of Kim and Goodall (2024), who tested competing predictions of two prominent accounts of that-trace effects, which are argued to emerge due to either syntactic constraints or considerations of the production system. To tease apart these possibilities, Kim and Goodall examine L2 sensitivity to that-trace effects, as the two accounts implicitly have different expectations regarding L2 performance. Their results showed a non-native pattern of acceptability judgments for Korean and Spanish learners of English, whose L1s do not display that-trace effects, which are argued to support a production-based account. The current study extends their experiment to Nadji Arabic L2 learners of English, whose L1 critically exhibits that-trace effects, allowing us to probe whether previous findings can be accounted for by processing difficulties or L1 background. Our results indicated that despite L2 learners’ native-like sensitivity at the group level, lower proficiency was associated with non-native-like subject extraction effects, in line with Kim and Goodall’s results. Overall, findings from an acceptability judgment task suggest that L2 sensitivity to that-trace effects does not involve transfer of a syntactic constraint, but is something that develops with proficiency, more in line with a production-based account.

Allocation of carbon emission responsibility among Chinese cities guided by economic welfare gains: Case study based on multi-regional input-output analysis

Ensuring equitable allocation of carbon emission responsibilities at the city level is crucial for effectively mitigating climate change. However, traditional allocation methods like production-based accounting (PBA) and consumption-based accounting (CBA) encounter double-counting problems at this scale. This study for the first time addressed the ignored externality of carbon emissions among bilateral trading partners at city scale, achieving equitable carbon emission responsibility reallocations using the economic welfare gain-based (EWG) method. Examining 313 cities in China using a multi-regional input-output model, the highest carbon emission responsibilities are identified in Baotou at 400.7 Mt., followed by Yunnan (189.9 Mt) and Dalian (166.7 Mt). In this case, the EWG method reallocates producer and consumer responsibilities in bilateral trades. Among the 313 cities, emission responsibilities from 198 are situated between PBA and CBA, avoiding one-sided assignment of emissions based solely on either principle. A comparative analysis of allocation methods in China further indicates a predominance of production responsibility, mirroring a similar trend between EWG and PBA; a significant portion of producer responsibilities are identified within EWG. The results of this work may offer a fairer and economically sound basis for allocating emission responsibilities among cities, thereby facilitating more effective emission reduction strategies.

Indonesia's contribution to global carbon flows: Which sectors are most responsible for the emissions embodied in trade?

Motivated by recent developments in global carbon policies, such as the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) in Europe and carbon pricing in Indonesia, this paper elaborates on CO2 emissions embodied in products entering and leaving Indonesia and identifies carbon-intensive sectors responsible for carbon leakage. This was performed by using global multi-regional input-output analysis and consumption-based accounting (CBA) - production-based accounting (PBA) ratio. In 2016, the annual CO2 emissions embodied in Indonesia's exports and imports were 114 and 95 Mt. CO2, respectively. Considering final demand only, these values reduce to 32 and 22 Mt. CO2 or 0.9 and 0.6 % of total CO2 emissions in global trade, respectively. The electrical and machinery sector makes up the most CO2 emissions in Indonesian exports. In terms of per USD, metal products and petroleum, chemical and non-metallic mineral products are among the most carbon-intensive sectors, thus likely to be affected by the CBAM policy. Furthermore, Indonesia's emissions under CBA were slightly lower than PBA, indicating that minor carbon leakage occurred in 2016, but this is subject to uncertainty. Assessing the relative CO2 emissions of various economic sectors is suitable for manufacturing goods whose processes are typically dominated by fossil combustion. However, this is not the case for the agriculture sector as its carbon footprint values are underestimated due to the exclusion of land use, land use change, and forestry emissions. Overall, our findings can serve as a baseline to further explore how a transition towards a low-carbon economy in Indonesia could improve global-trade carbon balances.

Redefining virtual water allocation in China based on economic welfare gains from environmental externalities

As water scarcity intensifies worldwide, the equitable allocation of water resources has emerged as a critical challenge. This research investigates the intricate issue of allocating responsibility for virtual water, a concept that quantifies the water embedded in traded commodities. In pursuit of an effective allocation mechanism, we refine an innovative accounting scheme grounded in economic welfare gains arising from externalities. The results show that water-stressed areas in China, such as Xinjiang, significantly contribute to exporting virtual water and is responsible for 70%–85% of the virtual water outflow. Furthermore, more than 50% of virtual water imported from water-rich regions is attributed to these water-stressed areas while their trade partners bear the rest water responsibility. In contrast, southern China's abundant water resources reduce dependence on virtual water trade, leading to fewer responsibilities. Globally, the allocated responsibility for the new accounting mechanism reaches up to 7.5 times higher than for production-based accounting (PBA) and consumption-based accounting (CBA). Our study also reveals that the degree of dependency (price elasticities) plays a pivotal role in shaping the allocation outcomes. The implications of this research are significant for establishing a transparent and accountable framework for sustainable water resource management and facilitating seamless transitions toward sustainability. As global water scarcity intensifies, the redefined responsibility accounting according to the economic welfare is indispensable in addressing immediate and long-term water-related challenges.

Allocating China's CO2 Emissions Based on Economic Welfare Gains from Environmental Externalities.

To achieve carbon neutrality (i.e., net zero carbon emissions) by 2060, China must make significant changes in its socioeconomic systems, including appropriately allocating emissions responsibility. Traditional methods of delineating responsibilities (such as production-based and consumption-based accounting) can lead to double counting when applied simultaneously and therefore difficulty in determining responsibilities of different agents. An alternative approach based on economic welfare gains from environmental externalities has been refined, ensuring that the responsibilities of consumers and producers add up to the total emissions. The application of this approach to 48 countries and 31 Chinese provinces reveals that regions with less elastic supply and demand, such as Hebei in China and Russia, have higher responsibilities. Furthermore, larger externalities associated with unitary product value shift the burden of obligations from producers to consumers. Regions with high levels of wealth and carbon-intensive imports, such as Zhejiang and Guangdong in China, as well as the United States, typically have higher consumer-based accounting (CBA) emissions than production-based accounting (PBA) emissions and, as a result, redistributed responsibilities between PBA and CBA emissions. The new distribution results vary significantly from PBA or CBA emissions, indicating opportunities for more comprehensive and accessible policy goals.

From Geospatial to Temporal Separation: A Review on Carbon Accounting Endogenizing Fixed Capital

A scientific and systematic approach that provides accurate carbon accounting is a fundamental prerequisite for responding to the climate crisis. The carbon accounting system has evolved from production-based accounting measuring territorial emissions to consumption-based accounting, gradually covering spatial and temporal separation. Its scientificity is thus enhanced. The temporal separation (between past production and current consumption) from fixed capital has become of recent interest, but a panoramic overview still rarely exists because of longstanding neglect. Combining quantitative analysis with a literature review, this study systematically analyzed the historical development and current state of carbon accounting, especially on studies endogenizing fixed capital, to locate hotspots and predict future trends. The current studies with fixed capital endogenization mainly use a flow matrix and augmented method to analyze the total and structure and the difference with traditional results, which are still in the initial rise stage; however, the process analysis and influence factor identification are insufficient. Therefore, this study proposes future avenues for analyzing the entire process of spatial and temporal carbon transfer based on a metabolic perspective and considering the initial input factors to identify the key drivers, which will provide new ideas and perspectives for policy formulation.

Analysis of provincial CO2 emission peaking in China: Insights from production and consumption

China has pledged to peak its carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, and the provincial governments have a common but differentiated responsibility for cutting emissions, depending on their conditions. Requiring all provinces to peak CO2 production-based emissions by 2030 may harm some regional economies because of the different industrial divisions in each Chinese province. In addition to production-based accounting (PBA), the study on the peaking of carbon emissions on consumption-based accounting (CBA) is a beneficial supplement to the research of PBA to comprehensively understand the basic situation and possible future paths of carbon emissions in all provinces in China. This research uses scenario analysis and the Monte Carlo simulation to simulate the CO2 path of Chinese provinces on production- and consumption-based accounting, which is based on China’s multi-regional input–output (MRIO) table in 2017 from the Chinese Emissions Accounts and DataSets (CEADs). This study finds that the provincial peaking time of CBA is 4–5 years later than that of PBA on average. Carbon transfer is the source of the difference in carbon emissions between PBA and CBA in different regions. We suggest that the government should pay attention to PBA and CBA when formulating policies. The region where PBA CO2 emissions reach peaking first should pay attention to the situation of CBA CO2 emissions, and the region where CBA CO2 emissions peak first should pay attention to the decline of PBA CO2 intensity. Finally, the government should encourage some developed net carbon import regions to provide transfer assistance of capital, technology, and talents to their carbon import regions to promote the scientific, fair, and efficient peaking of carbon emissions in provinces and the whole country.

Shared responsibility of carbon emission for international trade based on carbon emission embodied between developing and developed countries.

Traditional Production-Based Accounting (PBA) principle does not consider the embodied carbon emissions in export and import trade. A multiregional input–output (MRIO) model is constructed to estimate the embodied carbon dioxide emissions of 41 countries and regions worldwide, based on the PBA and shared responsibility approach in this paper. The results indicate that the embodied carbon emissions in 2018 in China’s export trade were 1326 million tons higher than that of import trade. China, India, and the USA have a different carbon coefficient in the 35 sectors, but electricity, gas, and water supply sectors are the largest coefficient for them. A reduction in carbon emission coefficient would contribute to a decrease in imports and exports. Through the empirical analysis of the embodied carbon emissions in China’s import and export trade, it can be seen that China is a major producer of carbon emissions, not a consumer country, and has taken more carbon emissions responsibility for the world. The developed countries should take more shared carbon emission responsibility than the PBA. And it is more reasonable and impartial to assign developed and developing countries carbon emissions responsibility in the light of the shared responsibility method.

A holistic perspective on the French building and construction GHG footprint

In order to deliver on the Paris agreement, the decarbonisation of the building sector is critical. An accurate assessment of its life cycle GHG emissions is essential to identify emissions hotspots and decarbonisation potentials in order to prepare future policies such as sectoral carbon budgets. However, today a lack of common GHG emissions accounting exists between climate policies and building environmental assessment. The first one relies on the production-based accounting system of national inventories, while the second one takes a life cycle approach, thus accounting for cross-sectoral emissions. As a result, at national level, there is no holistic assessment of the building and construction GHG footprint, which is detrimental to prepare decarbonisation pathways. This research aims to characterise the life cycle emissions of the sector, taking the French case as an example. A thorough analysis of operational direct and indirect emissions as well as embodied emissions allows the identification of emissions hotspots, both at sectoral and geographical levels. The methodology enables an integrated cross-sectoral perspective that is essential for national assessments and future policy interventions. Results show operational emissions represent 65% of the sector GHG footprint. Embodied emissions are mainly due to industry and energy upstream emissions, with roughly 60% imported from abroad. The results can help to identify main decarbonisation levers to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Production-Based and Consumption-Based Accounting of Global Cropland Soil Erosion.

The effective control of cropland soil erosion is urgent for all countries because of its threat to global food security. Cropland soil erosion is caused by agricultural production and driven indirectly by consumption. Analyzing the causes and preventive strategies from the consumption side is essential for soil erosion control. However, there is not yet sufficient research or practice. In this study, we estimated global cropland soil erosion with the revised universal soil loss equation, allocated it to specific types of crops, and quantified the cropland soil erosion footprint of the economies with a multiregional input-output analysis model. Our results showed that developed economies, usually importing cropland soil erosion from developing or agriculturally developed economies, are the beneficiaries in the current crop trading system. The European Union is the largest net importer, while Brazil is the largest exporter. The indirect and induced sectors are the main contributors, consuming approximately 70.48% of the total cropland soil erosion. Our results revealed the region- and product-specific contributors that could inform the reduction of global cropland soil erosion for sustainable food production and consumption.

Consumption-based carbon intensity of human well-being and its socioeconomic drivers in countries globally

The carbon intensity of human well-being (CIWB) is an effective indicator for measuring the progress of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Compared with production-based accounting, consumption-based CIWB is more useful for the dual tasks of improving cost-effectiveness and increasing equity. Therefore, this study for the first time estimated consumption-based CIWB in 176 countries from 1990 to 2015 by a multi-region input-output model and explored its spatiotemporal patterns. A panel regression technique was adopted to test the impact of the potential socio-economic determinants, with consideration given to the income levels of global countries. We found that global consumption-based CIWB improved annually between 1990 and 2015, and the gap between countries has also gradually decreased since 1995. Apparent differences in consumption-based CIWB and its changes were observed in the four income groups. The lower the income, the more pronounced the trend of consumption-based CIWB reductions was. Economic growth, energy intensity, and exports of goods and services all have a negative impact on the consumption-based CIWB, i.e., elevated CIWB values, while population density, urbanization, renewable energy consumption, and imports of goods and services all lower CIWB values. The effect of socioeconomic factors on consumption-based CIWB also presented different changes depending on income levels. The results of the study provide an important reference for improving the environment while enhancing human well-being.

The emissions responsibility accounting of multinational enterprises for an efficient climate policy

The achievement of global warming limits below 2 °C and 1.5 °C requires deeper involvement of nonstate and subnational actors. In this paper, we focus on multinational enterprises (MNEs) and propose a new technology-adjusted investment-based emission accounting (TIBA) system that considers the technology gap between parent companies and their foreign affiliates. Specifically, TIBA rewards the home regions that transfer clean technology to host regions through MNEs to reduce global emissions and penalizes home regions that expand with high emission intensities through MNEs to increase global emissions. Under the TIBA system, the economies with high outward foreign direct investment stocks are assigned significantly higher responsibilities of emissions than under the production-based accounting (PBA), such as the United States, major European economies, Japan, and Canada. However, the increases in responsibilities differ sharply, depending on their investing regions and industries, as well as the technology transfers. Moreover, our measurements suggest that ideal technology transfers under TIBA would reduce emissions by up to 3,762 Mt, accounting for ∼16% of global Carbon Dioxide emissions from industrial processes involving fossil fuel combustion in 2016. This implies that there is room for improvement in low-carbon technology transfers through MNEs to combat global climate change. Thus, we argue that TIBA targets an efficient policy that highlights the role of MNEs.

Carbon footprint analysis of household consumption in greater Guadalajara reveal stark socio-spatial inequalities

Household consumption drives more than 65% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, most governments plan to meet the Paris Agreement based on production-based accounting (PBA), neglecting lifecycle emissions embodied in trade and consumption, as well as socio-spatial inequalities. This is a sub-city consumption-based accounting (CBA) analysis of Guadalajara Metropolitan Area (MAG), grounded on Environmentally Extended Multi-Regional Input-Output using EXIOBASE 3.8.1, combined with Mexico's 2018 Consumer Expenditure Survey. The main objective is to explain the CO2e footprint of MAG's households, identifying emission hotspots and socio-spatial inequalities. This household CBA estimate shows MAG emitted a total of 23.35 MtCO2e during 2018, at least 26.6% higher than the local Climate Action Plan (CPA) territorial PBA estimate, and 121% higher for food. The average per capita footprint is 4.52 tCO2e, 40% higher than the average Mexican and 61% higher than the recommended level of 2.8 tCO2e/cap-yr to align with 1.5 °C pathways by 2030. However, 26% of the MAG population, mostly low-income households, is below this level. Conversely, highest incomes and per capita CO2e footprints are concentrated in Zapopan and Guadalajara, with 64% of total emissions despite hosting 55% population together. Further, income decile X reach 35% of the total emissions with 13% of the population. If left unchecked, MAG's footprints might increase with the trends of urbanization, inequality, higher consumption, and smaller households, as we find larger households associate with lower footprints. We confirm the need to complement CAP with CBA approach and increase socio-spatial resolution to unlock demand-side solutions that leverage on the interplay between urban, socioeconomic, and technical factors.

Economic impacts and carbon emissions of electric vehicles roll-out towards 2025 goal of China: An integrated input-output and computable general equilibrium study

The rapid expansion of China's vehicle fleet puts a strain on efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Despite broad consensus that switching from internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEV) to electric vehicles (EV) is an essential pathway to solving this challenge, some studies assessing individual vehicles have raised concerns over the high environmental impacts associated with the EV production phase, which may compromise the benefits derived from its use phase. To address this issue, we first develop a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to simulate how the economy and the automotive industry will respond to the increase in EV sales. Following the production-based accounting principle, the input-output model is then integrated with CGE to estimate CO 2 emissions. Three scenarios with and without suppression of ICEV consumption are created to analyze the sustainability of the automotive industry when 20% of new vehicles sold are EVs by 2025. The results show that the increase in EV sales has a negligible impact on the overall economy. Compared to the baseline, the automotive industry's output will increase by 5.16%, 3.04%, and 1.06% in three scenarios by 2025, while sectoral CO 2 emissions will increase by 6.59%, 3.95%, and 1.49%, which indicates that the difference between EVs and ICEVs is marginal in terms of CO 2 emissions per monetary output. This finding implies that EV production is unlikely to cause a significant increase in CO 2 emissions in the near future. Further, shifting a portion of domestic automotive production from ICEVs to EVs has a small impact on the top polluting sectors when ordered by CO 2 emissions. Therefore, the sustainable development of the automotive industry will not be hindered by large-scale EV adoption.

Implications of the consumption-based accounting for future national emissions budgets

ABSTRACT As a complement of production-based accounting (PBA), consumption-based accounting (CBA) provides an alternative perspective to understand national emissions and responsibilities for global climate change. Existing studies assessed historical national emissions under CBA. However, how CBA might guide future mitigation under the Paris Agreement goals has not been well understood. By combining global multi-region input-output analysis and the equity principle of ‘equal cumulative per capita emissions’ (ECPCE), this study explores potential implications of CBA for future national emissions budgets to limit global warming to below 1.5°C. Historically, consumption-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were higher than production-based emissions in most developed countries while lower in many developing countries. When CBA is used instead of PBA to allocate emissions budgets by ECPCE, future GHG mitigation burdens would become more stringent in 70% of Annex I (mostly developed) countries but slightly smaller in 55% of non-Annex I (mostly developing) countries. In particular, more than half of Annex I countries might need to achieve negative GHG budgets under 1.5°C. Our analysis emphasizes that, as net emission importers, developed countries could strive to pay equal attention to achieving consumption-based and production-based emissions reductions, and strengthen technological and financial support to developing countries that undertake production outsourcing. As net emission exporters, with international support and domestic investment, developing countries could pragmatically promote energy structure optimization and technological innovation to accelerate the decarbonization of production. To support the Paris Agreement goals, mitigation contributions initiated from the perspective of CBA could also be welcomed. Key policy insights Developed countries shift emissions to developing countries through international trade. CBA increases historical responsibilities of developed countries for climate warming from the PBA assessments. Compared to PBA, CBA has clear implications on future national emissions budgets under responsibility-based allocations, but does not change the urgency of national mitigation required to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. Allocated by ECPCE, future GHG budgets for over 50% of the world’s countries would be run out before 2040 under 1.5°C at the 2015 emissions rates, using either CBA or PBA. According to different roles in global supply chains, developed countries should step up support to help developing countries improve emissions and energy intensities, which is a key to reducing emissions embodied in trade.

Sovereign States in the Greenhouse: Does Jurisdiction Speak Against Consumption-Based Emissions Accounting?

ABSTRACT The choice of greenhouse gas emissions accounting method is important because it affects the way climate burdens are allocated between states. This paper investigates the significance of state jurisdiction for this choice. It assesses three arguments from jurisdiction against consumption-based emissions accounting: the fairness argument from retrospective responsibility; the fairness argument from prospective responsibility; and the effectiveness argument. It argues that former two arguments fail since attributing emissions to importing states neither unfairly blames these states nor asks too much of them. However, the effectiveness argument provides a strong potential reason against consumption-based emissions accounting. To the extent jurisdictional control is needed to reduce some emissions, and production-based accounting incentivizes states to reduce these emissions, there is a reason of environmental effectiveness for sticking with production-based accounting.

An environmentally extended global multi-regional input-output analysis of consumption-based and embodied import-based carbon emissions of Turkey.

Understanding the consumption-based accounting (CBA), production-based accounting (PBA), and emissions embodied in trade is an important prerequisite for designing climate mitigation policies. Environmentally extended input–output (EEIO) models have been developed to evaluate the linkages between economic activities and environmental impacts as well as the embodied emissions in goods and services that are traded between countries. In this study, an environmentally extended global multi-regional input–output (EE GMRIO) analysis is performed to calculate Turkey’s CBA emissions and import-based embodied emissions for the year 2015 using the Eora26 database, which is a simplified version of the Eora database adapted to 26 economic sectors. The key sectors and sectoral carbon intensities of countries are determined in terms of embodied emissions in imports for household consumption. Our results indicate that Turkey was a net importer of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2015 and about 10% of total emissions of the final consumption in Turkey have occurred in other countries. The dominant contributing sectors to a nation’s GHG emissions can be quite different for the CBA and PBA approaches and the efforts to reduce GHG emissions requires a holistic approach. Import-based household emissions are assessed in terms of countries, sector and GHG intensities. Our results indicate that Turkey was a net importer of GHG emissions in 2015 with its approximately 10% of the total and 7.7% of household final consumption emissions having occurred in other countries. This also suggests that imported goods and services for household consumption have been produced in those countries with relatively low emission intensities. Considering Turkey’s emissions reduction targets, these results provide methodological benefits that will enhance national efforts by giving invaluable inputs about the emission intensity of imported and exported goods and better guidance to policy makers about future strategies for low-carbon manufacturing and shifting consumption patterns.

Quantifying international energy justice: The cost of electricity within footprint accounts

This research quantifies the international electric payments embodied in goods and services, for the purpose of moving towards a clear and fair electric exchange within international footprint accounts. The electric consumption and related cost of 43 countries that represent 84% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been calculated, shifting from traditionally used Production-Based Accounting (PBA) to Consumption-Based Accounting (CBA). This research has identified not only the electric cost for what is produced in each country, but also the electric cost embodied in imported and exported goods and services. The difference between Production- and Consumption-Based Accounts has been defined as “Hidden Electric Cost” (HEC). Secondly, we have calculated the hypothetical national electric cost if countries were to produce within their own borders all the goods and services they consume. The difference between the current electric footprint cost and hypothetical self-sufficiency cost has been referred to as “Justice in Electricity Costs” (JIEC), an indicator which shows how much a country would have to spend to achieve electric sovereignty. This indicator reveals that there are countries (usually developed ones) that would face greater costs than what they currently pay by outsourcing the production of goods to other less developed countries. The study shows that, from the 43 countries analysed, and the Rest of the World (RoW) considered a 44th one, the ten most developed ones are spending on average 14.36% more on electricity than declared, and the ten least developed ones, 1.35% less than declared. At the same time, the 10 most developed countries would have to spend even 0.86% more to achieve electrical sovereignty, while for the ten least developed countries this would mean savings of 1.04%. In addition, a more specific analysis has been made for the textile and agriculture sectors, showing the ten countries with the highest Human Development Index (HDI) among those analysed would have to spend 438.75% more on average to pay for imported electricity at national price and achieve electric sovereignty for the textile sector, and 24.4% more for the agriculture sector. In the interests of achieving fair global electric payments, it would be appropriate for countries to take these variations in payments into account in international relations so as to move towards greater international justice.

Research on International Carbon Emission Responsibility Based on Tapio Decoupling Model

Based on the WIOD database, the article uses the MRIO model to analyze the production-based and consumption-based carbon emissions and transfer issues in international trade, measures the carbon emissions generated by the EU, China, India, Japan, Russia, and the US in 2014, uses the Tapio decoupling model to clarify the relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions, and determines the responsibility of carbon emissions in each country (region) using 2013 as the base period. The study found that: China and India are based on the production of carbon emissions. It is found that: production-based carbon emissions are higher than consumption-based emissions in China and India, and the opposite is true for EU, US, Japan, and Russia; developing countries are net exporters of trade-embodied carbon and developed countries are net importers of trade-embodied carbon; and a consumption-based accounting approach is used for EU and China, and a production-based accounting approach is used for India, Russia, Japan, and US.

How ecoefficient is European food consumption? A frontier‐based multiregional input–output analysis

AbstractThis paper presents an integrated approach combining the optimization‐based frontier model with a global multiregional input–output (MRIO) analysis for food consumption in Europe. The weighted and conventional data envelopment analysis models are coupled with production and consumption‐based environmental and economic footprint data obtained from the environmental footprint explorer database. Eco‐efficiency assessment is carried out using multiple undesirable environmental outputs such as carbon emission, total energy consumption, land use, material use, water use, and one desirable economic output, which is the gross value‐added (GVA). This assessment indicates an efficiency level of each economic activity associated with its environmental impacts and policies are made as a result of the efficiency level to propose an equilibrium between economic development and environmental impacts. Finally, a sensitivity analysis of each parameter, variability analysis between weighted and non‐weighted models, and performance improvement projections are presented. Based on the results, four countries become efficient when moving from production‐based accounting (PBA) to consumption‐based accounting (CBA). France, United Kingdom, Italy, and Sweden are efficient countries in both findings. Denmark caused the highest carbon emission from the production point of view. Germany is the largest importer in all environmental categories such as carbon emission, energy usage, material use, land use, and water use. Additionally, the weight‐restricted model indicated a noticeable difference concerning the eco‐efficiency scores under the PBA and CBA approach, where land use and material footprint categories were found to be the most sensitive parameters for eco‐efficiency scores. The authors believe that this integrated approach will aid in decision‐making and help build a composite eco‐efficiency score when comparing the performance of food consumption with multiple environmental and economic metrics.