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Environmental Impacts of Products:Policy Relevant Information and Data Challenges

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  • Arnold Tukker
  • Peter Eder
  • Sangwon Suh

Abstract

The research and analysis presented in this special issue shows that the same limited number of consumption categories are consistently revealed to be responsible for the largest share of environmental impact: mobility (automobile and air transport), food (meat, poultry, fish, and dairy followed by plant‐based food), and residential energy use in the house (heating, cooling, electrical appliances, and lighting). It appears that differences in impact per euro between the product groupings are relatively limited, so it is essential to reduce the life‐cycle impacts of products as such, rather than to shift expenditures to less impact‐intensive product groupings. Furthermore, the effectiveness of expenditure on material products to improve quality of life leaves much room for improvement. Environmentally extended input‐output (EEIO) tables probably form, in this field, the most appropriate information support tool for priority setting, prospective assessment of options, scenario analysis, and monitoring. A clear benefit would result from integrating the input–output (IO) tables in the report to Eurostat of the 25 individual countries that make up the European Union (EU), with other officially available information on emissions and resources use, into a 60‐sector EEIO table for the EU. This, obviously, would be the first step toward more detailed tables. Three strategies are suggested to realize the additional, desirable detail of 150 sectors or more, each achievable at an increasing time horizon and with increasing effort: (1) developing further the current CEDA EU25 table; (2) building a truly European detailed input–output table accepting the restrictions of existing data gathering procedures; and (3) as (2), but developing new, dedicated data gathering and classification procedures. In all cases, a key issue is harmonizing classification systems for industry sectors, consumer expenditure categories, and product classifications (as in import/export statistics) in such a way that data sets may adequately be linked to input–output tables.

Suggested Citation

  • Arnold Tukker & Peter Eder & Sangwon Suh, 2006. "Environmental Impacts of Products:Policy Relevant Information and Data Challenges," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 10(3), pages 183-198, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:10:y:2006:i:3:p:183-198
    DOI: 10.1162/jiec.2006.10.3.183
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    Cited by:

    1. Druckman, Angela & Jackson, Tim, 2009. "The carbon footprint of UK households 1990-2004: A socio-economically disaggregated, quasi-multi-regional input-output model," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 2066-2077, May.
    2. Kitzes, Justin & Galli, Alessandro & Bagliani, Marco & Barrett, John & Dige, Gorm & Ede, Sharon & Erb, Karlheinz & Giljum, Stefan & Haberl, Helmut & Hails, Chris & Jolia-Ferrier, Laurent & Jungwirth, , 2009. "A research agenda for improving national Ecological Footprint accounts," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1991-2007, May.
    3. Bjelle, Eivind Lekve & Wiebe, Kirsten S. & Többen, Johannes & Tisserant, Alexandre & Ivanova, Diana & Vita, Gibran & Wood, Richard, 2021. "Future changes in consumption: The income effect on greenhouse gas emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    4. Daniel El Chami & Raffaella Santagata & Stefania Moretti & Luca Moreschi & Adriana Del Borghi & Michela Gallo, 2023. "A Life Cycle Assessment to Evaluate the Environmental Benefits of Applying the Circular Economy Model to the Fertiliser Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-15, October.
    5. J., Pablo Muñoz & Hubacek, Klaus, 2008. "Material implication of Chile's economic growth: Combining material flow accounting (MFA) and structural decomposition analysis (SDA)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 136-144, March.
    6. Mach, Radomír & Weinzettel, Jan & Ščasný, Milan, 2018. "Environmental Impact of Consumption by Czech Households: Hybrid Input–Output Analysis Linked to Household Consumption Data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 62-73.
    7. Meylan, Grégoire & Ami, Helen & Spoerri, Andy, 2014. "Transitions of municipal solid waste management. Part II: Hybrid life cycle assessment of Swiss glass-packaging disposal," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 16-27.
    8. Andreas Froemelt & René Buffat & Stefanie Hellweg, 2020. "Machine learning based modeling of households: A regionalized bottom‐up approach to investigate consumption‐induced environmental impacts," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 24(3), pages 639-652, June.
    9. Brian G. Fitzgerald & Travis O'Doherty & Richard Moles & Bernadette O'Regan, 2015. "Quantitative Evaluation of Settlement Sustainability Policy (QESSP); Forward Planning for 26 Irish Settlements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-21, February.
    10. Shigemi Kagawa & Seiji Hashimoto & Shunsuke Managi, 2015. "Special issue: studies on industrial ecology," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 17(3), pages 361-368, July.
    11. Druckman, A. & Bradley, P. & Papathanasopoulou, E. & Jackson, T., 2008. "Measuring progress towards carbon reduction in the UK," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 594-604, July.
    12. Durba Kashyap & Tripti Agarwal, 2020. "Food loss in India: water footprint, land footprint and GHG emissions," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 2905-2918, April.

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