Anne Owen

University of Leeds · School of Earth and Environment

Many multiregional input–output (MRIO) databases are used to calculate consumption-based accounts. Results feature in climate policy discussion on emissions reduction responsibilities; yet studies show that outcomes produced by each database differ. This paper compares the emissions associated with value chains from Eora, EXIOBASE, GTAP and WIOD. S...

Through an increasingly globalized supply chain, local consumption of goods and services has impacts around the world. The carbon footprint can be used to link local consumption to global greenhouse gas emissions. This study describes the development and use of REAP Petite, a household-level footprint calculator. We describe how the tool integrates...

This editorial is the introduction to a special issue of Economics Systems Research on the topic of intercomparison of multi-regional input–output (MRIO) databases and analyses. It explains the rationale for dedicating an issue of this journal to this area of research. Then the six papers chosen for this issue are introduced. This is followed by a...

The construction of multi-regional input–output tables is complex, and databases produced using different approaches lead to different analytical outcomes. We outline a decomposition methodology for investigating the variations that exist when using different multiregional input–output (MRIO) systems to calculate a region's consumption-based accoun...

The past few years have seen the emergence of several global multiregional input–output (MRIO) databases. Due to the cost and complexity of developing such extensive tables, industry sectors are generally represented at a rather aggregate level. Currently, one of the most important applications of input–output analysis is environmental assessments,...

Sharing_out_the_cost_of_decarbonising_UK_industry

A major challenge for cities taking action on climate change is assessing and managing the contribution of urban consumption which triggers greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions outside city boundaries. Using a novel method of creating city‐level input–output tables, we present the first consistent, large‐scale, and global assessment of three‐scope GHG in...

Input-output analysis is one of the central methodological pillars of industrial ecology. However, the literature that discusses different structures of environmental extensions (EEs), i.e. the scope of physical flows and their attribution to sectors in the monetary input-output table (MIOT), remains fragmented. This paper investigates the conceptu...

Under many scenarios, fossil fuels are projected to remain the dominant energy source until at least 2050. However, harder-to-reach fossil fuels require more energy to extract and, hence, are coming at an increasing ‘energy cost’. Associated declines in fossil fuel energy-return-on-investment ratios at first appear of little concern, given that pub...

In various international policy processes such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, an urgent demand for robust consumption‐based indicators of material flows, or material footprints (MFs), has emerged over the past years. Yet, MFs for national economies diverge when calculated with different Global Multiregional Input–Output (GMRIO) databases,...

In 2017 the paper “The Sustainable Development Oxymoron: Quantifying and Modelling the Incompatibility of Sustainable Development Goals" (Spaiser et al. 2017) was published, showing that there is a conflict between socio-economic development goals and ecological sustainability goals using cross-country time-series data. The authors looked at produc...

Projections of UK greenhouse gas emissions estimate a shortfall in existing and planned climate policies meeting UK climate targets: the UK’s mitigation gap. Material and product demand is driving industrial greenhouse gas emissions at a rate greater than carbon intensity improvements in the economy. Evidence shows that products can be produced wit...

In 2017 the paper "The Sustainable Development Oxymoron: Quantifying and Modelling the Incompatibility of Sustainable Development Goals" (Spaiser et al. 2017) was published, showing that there is a conflict between socioeconomic development goals and ecological sustainability goals using crosscountry time-series data. The authors looked at producti...

The UK has been one of the few countries that has successfully decoupled final energy consumption from economic growth over the past 15 years. This study investigates the drivers of final energy consumption in the UK productive sectors between 1997 and 2013 using a decomposition analysis that incorporates two novel features. Firstly, it investigate...

In response to the oil crises of the 1970s, energy accounting experienced a revolution and became the much broader field of energy analysis, in part by expanding along the energy conversion chain from primary and final energy to useful energy and energy services, which satisfy human needs. After evolution and specialization, the field of energy ana...

Global multiregional input-output databases (GMRIOs) became the standard tool for tracking environmental impacts through global supply chains. To date, several GMRIOs are available, but the numerical results differ. This paper considers how GMRIOs can be made more robust and authoritative. We show that GMRIOs need detail in environmentally relevant...

Over the past two decades reductions in the final energy consumption of the productive sectors (industry, public administration, commercial services and agriculture), have made important contributions to overall reductions in UK final energy consumption. This study investigates the drivers of the reductions in final energy consumption in the UK pro...

Recent advances in detailed multiregional input-output databases offers new opportunities to use these environmental accounting tools to explore the interrelationships between energy, water and food–the energy-water-food nexus. This paper takes the UK as a case study and calculates energy, water and food consumption-based accounts for 1997-2013. Po...

Recent empirical assessments revealed that footprint indicators calculated with various multi-regional input–output (MRIO) databases deliver deviating results. In this paper, we propose a new method, called structural production layer decomposition (SPLD), which complements existing structural decomposition approaches. SPLD enables differentiating...

During the last decades, the UK economy has increasingly relied on foreign markets to fulfil its material needs, becoming a net importer of both emissions and employment. While the emissions footprint reflects the pressure that consumption exerts on the planet's climate, the labour footprint represents the employment that is created across the glob...

Energy demand is driven by the consumption of goods and services by households and government. The UK has now seen a moderate annual reduction in energy demand for over 10 years. This paper explores whether this is predominately due to the outsourcing of energy demand to other countries to satisfy UK consumption, or whether energy efficiency polici...

This study analyses the effect on energy use of applying a wide range of circular economy approaches. By collating evidence on specific quantifiable approaches and then calculating and analyzing their combined full supply chain impacts through input-output analysis, it provides a more complete assessment of the overall potential scope for energy sa...

Existing international emissions reduction policies are not sufficient to meet the internationally agreed objective of limiting average global temperature rise to ‘well below’ two degrees, resulting in an emissions gap. Materials – such as aluminium, cement, paper, plastics and steel – act as a carrier of industrial energy that allows, through trad...

Concerns have been raised that declining energy return on energy investment (EROI) from fossil fuels, and low levels of EROI for alternative energy sources, could constrain the ability of national economies to continue to deliver economic growth and improvements in social wellbeing while undertaking a low-carbon transition. However, in order to tes...

Increasing attention has been focussed on the use of consumption-based approaches to energy accounting via input-output (IO) methods. Of particular interest is the examination of energy supply chains, given the associated risks from supply-chain issues, including availability shocks, taxes on fossil fuels and fluctuating energy prices. Using a mult...

This chapter gives brief descriptions of the methods that are used in this book including their general mathematical expression. A more detailed explanation of how the techniques have been employed to specifically understand the differences in the CBA calculated by Eora, GTAP and WIOD is given in the appropriate section of the empirical analysis (C...

This chapter uses matrix difference statistics compare MRIO databases. Firstly, results calculated using aggregated versions of Eora, GTAP and WIOD are compared to the results calculated using the complete versions to test whether the aggregated databases are reasonable representations of the full versions. Once this has been established, the secon...

Where Chap. 6 discussed what the findings of this study mean for researchers and users of MRIO databases, in this chapter begins by demonstrating how the work presented satisfies the overarching aim. This concluding chapter briefly summarises how the study has contributed to the knowledge base before addressing some of the limitations to the work....

This chapter provides a brief overview of the current state of research in the field of multiregional input–output (MRIO) analysis and introduces the main MRIO databases. The chapter continues by explaining that due to differences in the way the databases were constructed and the source data used, there are differences in the \(\mathrm{CO}_{2}\) co...

This chapter begins with a summary of the findings from the results chapters. The findings are summarised by addressing the research questions 1 to 5 presented in Sect. 1. 2. The final research theme (RT6) asks what the findings mean for the future of MRIO development and its use in policy. This is the subject matter for the final part of this chap...

This book identifies techniques that can be used to evaluate the differences in consumption-based accounts (CBA) calculated by three multiregional input–output (MRIO) databases. This literature review chapter gives an overview of the development of environmentally-extended input–output analysis, followed by descriptions of how to construct an MRIO...

This book introduces the Eora, Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) and World Input-Output (WIOD) databases and provides detailed metadata on the data sources, database structures and construction techniques used to build each system. It offers a detailed account of how multi-regional input–output (MRIO) databases are used to calculate consumption-...

Material efficiency, reducing the amount of new material inputs per given level of service or output, can improve both the resource efficiency of an economy and reduce demand for energy and GHG emissions intensive materials. It requires a change in the way materials, components and final products are used along the supply chain with associated impa...

Global multiregional input–output (MRIO) tables constitute detailed accounts of the economic activity worldwide. Global trade models based on MRIO tables are being used to calculate important economic and environmental indicators such as value added in trade or the carbon footprint of nations. Such applications are highly relevant in international...

After the Paris Climate Agreement, it is anticipated that carbon prices will differ across regions for some time. If countries use free allowance allocation as carbon leakage protection, only a fraction of carbon prices are passed through to consumers particularly by carbon intensive materials producers. Adding a consumption charge based on benchma...

Complementary uses of EE-IOA and MFA based assessment of impacts Approaches based upon Material Flow Analysis (MFA) and Environmentally Extended Input Output Analysis (EE-IOA) are widely used for studies investigating the environmental impacts which can be attributed to different activities or which might result from proposed activities. This stud...

Disaggregated monetary IOT as an alternative to physical IOT This contribution discusses the possible use of disaggregated monetary flows as an alternative approach to mixed unit (physical / monetary) flows in input-output tables. One of the several benefits of physical unit tables is that they deal with the issue of price inhomogeneity between se...

The Eora, GTAP and WIOD multiregional input-output (MRIO) databases calculate different national level CO2 consumption-based accounts (CBA). If these outcomes are to be used as evidence in climate policy, analysts need to be confident as to the accuracy of the databases and to understand why the results differ. This thesis explores the different da...

The UK construction industry faces the daunting task of replacing and extending a significant proportion of UK infrastructure, meeting a growing housing shortage and retrofitting millions of homes whilst achieving greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions compatible with the UK's legally binding target of an 80% reduction by 2050. This paper present...

Environmentally extended multi-regional input-output (EE-MRIO) models provide us with a wealth of data relating to consumption-based environmental impacts at a national level. The results can identify the categories of consumption and sectors of production that contribute most to environmental impact allowing policy makers to prioritise interventio...

Community-level initiatives will play a key role in meeting greenhouse gas reduction targets. This paper examines the experience gained in applying a targeted social marketing approach to foster local-scale community pro-environmental behavioural change in the City of York, UK. This involved determining the neighbourhood carbon footprint, identifyi...

This paper explores the development and application of a bespoke modelling and scenario tool to quantify the full greenhouse gas (CO2e) footprint associated with visitor activity and consumption. Designed for use by destination decision-makers, it helps understand the full CO2e impact of visitors, explores potential mitigation strategies and identi...

With no globally comprehensive agreement until 2020, there is a serious concern that the environmental effectiveness of climate policy in developed countries will be compromised. This report explores how to extend the responsibility of developed countries to minimise the effects of emission leakage in the absence of a global agreement between 2012...

This report provides an analysis of where GHG emissions associated with UK consumption occur by both sector and country. To undertake this task, Multi-Regional Environmentally extended Input-Output Analysis is employed to allocate environmental pressures (e.g. emissions of greenhouse gases) associated with production and supply chain processes to g...

The York Green Neighbourhood Challenge was a community engagement initiative conducted in the City of York in the period May 2009 to September 2010. The project was funded by the Without Walls Partnership Local Area Agreement (LAA) Delivery Fund on behalf of the York Environment Partnership (an environmentally focused partnership within the Without...

This article provides an overview of how generalised multi-regional input-output models can be used for carbon footprint applications. We focus on the relevance and suitability of such evidence to inform decision making. Such an overview is currently missing. Drawing on UK results, we cover carbon footprint applications in seven areas: national emi...

The aim of the study is to determine the carbon footprint of York residents and show how this varies throughout the city. It builds upon a 2002 study to assess the ecological footprint of York.3 A number of factors can shape and constrain an individual’s decision to lead a greener lifestyle. While there may be a willingness to undertake green actio...

Changing public attitudes and behaviour is key to achieving the UK target of a 60% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. Top-down campaigns that have provided information to a passive public have not necessarily resulted in pro-environmental behavioural change. This paper examines the use of a personalised social marketing approach to enga...

Exceedance of steady-state critical loads for soil acidification is consistently found in southern China and parts of SE Asia, but there is no evidence of impacts outside of China. This study describes a methodology for calculating the time to effects for soils sensitive to acidic deposition in Asia under potential future sulfur (S), nitrogen (N),...

The study of sustainable development relies upon an understanding of the linkages and interactions between the physical, social and economic environments. One of the problems confronting investigations of sustainable development has been the apparent incompatibility of spatial data collected by different academic disciplines, due to the differing s...

Christmas time is accompanied by seasonal increases in our level of consumption. From eating and drinking to giving and receiving, it is the time of the year when we do things to excess. Unfortunately, it also means we are likely to have a greater impact on the environment. Our total consumption and spending on food, travel, lighting and gifts over...

At a global level, increasing emphasis on sustainable development highlights the importance of maintaining and enhancing biodiversity. Within the European Union, agricultural reforms will have a considerable influence on the links between biodiversity, agriculture and rural communities over the next 10-20 years. An understanding of the associations...