IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v65y2008i2p266-281.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The need for combining IEA and IE tools: The potential effects of a global ban on PVC on climate change

Author

Listed:
  • Kleijn, René
  • van der Voet, Ester
  • Udo de Haes, Helias A.

Abstract

Over the last decades the concepts of Integrated Environmental Assessment (IEA) and Industrial Ecology (IE), both claiming to provide analyses and solutions for sustainability issues, have been developed separately as they emerged in response to questions from different policy-fields. In both fields, specific tools are used to support national and international environmental policy. The focus of IEA and IE tools, however, is different. IEA tools focus on one or a limited number of specific environmental issues. They often model the chain environmental processes with high spatial (and temporal) resolution, but have a low resolution for the material structure of the economy and only partly take into account indirect effects that occur via physical and socio-economic linkages. IE tools take into account all environmental issues related to a specific substance or product. They have a high resolution for the material structure of the economy and take into account indirect effects that occur via physical linkages, however, their environmental modelling is very limited. Both IE and IEA tools have proven to be very useful and neither is superior to the other. However, a combination of both can provide additional information that can be used for more effective policy making. We use the case of a hypothetical world-wide ban on PVC to show that a measure that is not directly related to climate change could still have significant climate effects. This indirect effect is a result of the linkages of material flows in society. We show that IEA tools are not well suited to include these types of effects and that IE tools can fill this gap partially. What is really needed is a broader systems perspective that takes into account the full range of possible side-effects of environmental policy measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Kleijn, René & van der Voet, Ester & Udo de Haes, Helias A., 2008. "The need for combining IEA and IE tools: The potential effects of a global ban on PVC on climate change," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 266-281, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:65:y:2008:i:2:p:266-281
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921-8009(07)00353-9
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert U. Ayres, 1998. "The Life Cycle of Chlorine, Part III," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 2(1), pages 93-115, January.
    2. Kleijn, Rene & Huele, Ruben & van der Voet, Ester, 2000. "Dynamic substance flow analysis: the delaying mechanism of stocks, with the case of PVC in Sweden," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 241-254, February.
    3. Elshkaki, Ayman & van der Voet, Ester & Timmermans, Veerle & Van Holderbeke, Mirja, 2005. "Dynamic stock modelling: A method for the identification and estimation of future waste streams and emissions based on past production and product stock characteristics," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(8), pages 1353-1363.
    4. Robert U. Ayres & Leslie W. Ayres, 1997. "The Life Cycle of Chlorine, Part II: Conversion Processes and Use in the European Chemical Industry," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 1(2), pages 65-89, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kleijn, Rene & van der Voet, Ester, 2010. "Resource constraints in a hydrogen economy based on renewable energy sources: An exploration," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(9), pages 2784-2795, December.
    2. Zhang, Hui & Dong, Liang & Li, Huiquan & Fujita, Tsuyoshi & Ohnishi, Satoshi & Tang, Qing, 2013. "Analysis of low-carbon industrial symbiosis technology for carbon mitigation in a Chinese iron/steel industrial park: A case study with carbon flow analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1400-1411.
    3. Lauwers, Ludwig, 2009. "Justifying the incorporation of the materials balance principle into frontier-based eco-efficiency models," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1605-1614, April.
    4. Silva Lora, Electo E. & Escobar Palacio, José C. & Rocha, Mateus H. & Grillo Renó, Maria L. & Venturini, Osvaldo J. & Almazán del Olmo, Oscar, 2011. "Issues to consider, existing tools and constraints in biofuels sustainability assessments," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 2097-2110.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Taulo, J.L. & Sebitosi, A.B., 2016. "Material and energy flow analysis of the Malawian tea industry," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1337-1350.
    2. Zhou, Yucheng & Yang, Ning & Hu, Shanying, 2013. "Industrial metabolism of PVC in China: A dynamic material flow analysis," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 33-40.
    3. Cao, Zhi & Shen, Lei & Liu, Litao & Zhao, Jianan & Zhong, Shuai & Kong, Hanxiao & Sun, Yanzhi, 2017. "Estimating the in-use cement stock in China: 1920–2013," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 21-31.
    4. Tsiliyannis, Christos Aristeides, 2015. "Sustainability by cyclic manufacturing: Assessment of resource preservation under uncertain growth and returns," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 155-170.
    5. Marwede, Max & Reller, Armin, 2012. "Future recycling flows of tellurium from cadmium telluride photovoltaic waste," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 35-49.
    6. Tsiliyannis, Christos Aristeides, 2018. "Markov chain modeling and forecasting of product returns in remanufacturing based on stock mean-age," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 271(2), pages 474-489.
    7. Zhang, Ling & Yuan, Zengwei & Bi, Jun, 2011. "Predicting future quantities of obsolete household appliances in Nanjing by a stock-based model," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 55(11), pages 1087-1094.
    8. Tomer Fishman & Rupert J. Myers & Orlando Rios & T.E. Graedel, 2018. "Implications of Emerging Vehicle Technologies on Rare Earth Supply and Demand in the United States," Resources, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-15, January.
    9. Spatari, S. & Bertram, M. & Gordon, Robert B. & Henderson, K. & Graedel, T.E., 2005. "Twentieth century copper stocks and flows in North America: A dynamic analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 37-51, July.
    10. Yuan Tian & Mengqi Han & Dungang Gu & Zhujie Bi & Nannan Gu & Tingting Hu & Guanghui Li & Nan Zhang & Jiaqi Lu, 2024. "PVC Dechlorination for Facilitating Plastic Chemical Recycling: A Systematic Literature Review of Technical Advances, Modeling and Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-27, September.
    11. Fu, Xinkai & Ueland, Stian M. & Olivetti, Elsa, 2017. "Econometric modeling of recycled copper supply," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 219-226.
    12. Binder, Claudia R. & Hofer, Christoph & Wiek, Arnim & Scholz, Roland W., 2004. "Transition towards improved regional wood flows by integrating material flux analysis and agent analysis: the case of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Switzerland," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 1-17, May.
    13. B. Muller, Daniel, 2006. "Stock dynamics for forecasting material flows--Case study for housing in The Netherlands," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 142-156, August.
    14. Van Eygen, Emile & Feketitsch, Julia & Laner, David & Rechberger, Helmut & Fellner, Johann, 2017. "Comprehensive analysis and quantification of national plastic flows: The case of Austria," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 117(PB), pages 183-194.
    15. Hoarau, Quentin & Lorang, Etienne, 2022. "An assessment of the European regulation on battery recycling for electric vehicles," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    16. Hecher, Maria & Vilsmaier, Ulli & Akhavan, Roya & Binder, Claudia R., 2016. "An integrative analysis of energy transitions in energy regions: A case study of ökoEnergieland in Austria," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 40-53.
    17. Davis, J. & Geyer, R. & Ley, J. & He, J. & Clift, R. & Kwan, A. & Sansom, M. & Jackson, T., 2007. "Time-dependent material flow analysis of iron and steel in the UK," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 118-140.
    18. Kalmykova, Yuliya & Berg, Per E.-O. & Patrício, João & Lisovskaja, Vera, 2017. "Portable battery lifespans and new estimation method for battery collection rate based on a lifespan modeling approach," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 65-74.
    19. Guo, Xueyi & Zhang, Jingxi & Tian, Qinghua, 2021. "Modeling the potential impact of future lithium recycling on lithium demand in China: A dynamic SFA approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    20. R. Yamaguchi & K. Ueta, 2011. "Capital depreciation and waste accumulation in capital-resource economies," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(6), pages 519-522.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:65:y:2008:i:2:p:266-281. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.