- Home
- Publications & Research
- Publication #250
Consumption-based Material Flow Accounting
- Title
- Consumption-based Material Flow Accounting
- Author(s)
- Anke Schaffartzik
- Nina Eisenmenger
- Fridolin Krausmann
- Helga Weisz
- Year
- 2014
- Type
- Journal Article
- Source
-
Journal of Industrial Ecology, Volume 18, Issue 1, Pages 102--112
- DOI
- 10.1111/jiec.12055
- Abstract
- In 2007, imports accounted for approximately 34% of the material input (domestic extraction and imports) into the Austrian economy and almost 60% of the GDP stemmed from exports. Upstream material inputs into the production of traded goods, however, are not yet included in the standard framework of material flow accounting (MFA). We have reviewed different approaches accounting for these upstream material inputs, or raw material equivalents (RME), positioning them in a wider debate about consumption-based perspectives in environmental accounting. For the period 1995-2007, we calculated annual RME of Austria's trade and consumption applying a hybrid approach. For exports and competitive imports, we used an environmentally extended input-output model of the Austrian economy, based on annual supply and use tables and MFA data. For noncompetitive imports, coefficients for upstream material inputs were extracted from life cycle inventories. The RME of Austria's imports and exports were approximately three times larger than the trade flows themselves. In 2007, Austria's raw material consumption was 30 million tonnes or 15% higher than its domestic material consumption. We discuss the material composition of these flows and their temporal dynamics. Our results demonstrate the need for a consumption-based perspective in MFA to provide robust indicators for dematerialization and resource efficiency analysis of open economies.
- Access
- Open Access
- More Information
-
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12055
Tags
Back
Incorrect or incomplete information? Click here to report this.
This website provides meta data on papers and other publications, with links
to the original publications. These papers may be copyrighted or otherwise
protected by the publishing journal or author. Some journals provide open
access to their publications. When possible we will try to include abstracts
and more details for open access publications. For more details, follow the
link to the original document and/or contact the publisher/author.