A Key Sector Approach to the Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis of the UK Economy

For a very long time, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been the key variable at the heart of macroeconomic policies all over the world. Due to the efforts of ecological economists, and especially Herman Daly (2000), a new vision was proposed: the vision of sustainable development as a qualitative creative change, as opposed to quantitative growth. Three key elements seem to be crucial for socio-ecological transformation if our society is to achieve sustainable development, overcome growing energy and resource requirements and rising volumes of emissions and wastes, and facilitate change to renewable energy sources and the conservation of biodiversity: first, the framework of industrial ecology (Graedel and Allenby, 2002), which highlights the importance of the intersectoral flows of matter and energy required for the production of goods and services analyzed in detail throughout the life-cycle of a given product or service, or regional or national system; second, a system of tools for decision-making (Söderbaum, 2000) based on multi-criteria methods which, applied at different levels, would shift the patterns of decision-making towards decisions that are more socially equitable and more environment-friendly, as well as more economically sound; and third, a system of macroeconomic goals or sustainability assessment methods which dominate on the macroeconomic scene.