Integrating Material Stock Dynamics Into Economy-Wide Material Flow Accounting: Concepts, Modelling, and Global Application for 1900–2050

By Dominik Wiedenhofer, T. Fishman, C. Lauk, W. Haas, F. Krausmann. Ecological Economics, 2019

184 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Assessing progress towards environmental sustainability requires a robust and systematic knowledge base. Economy-wide material flow accounting (ew-MFA) is an established method to monitor resource use across scales and its headline indicators are widely used in policy. However, ew-MFA is currently limited by its empirical focus on annual flows of material and energy, because it neglects the pivotal role of in-use material stocks of manufactured capital. Explicitly integrating in-use stocks enables new insights into a range of Ecological Economics' topics, such as the biophysical assessment of socio-economic systems, the circular economy and stock-flow consistent scenarios. Herein, we conceptually and practically expand the ew-MFA framework towards jointly addressing material flows, in-use stocks of manufactured capital and waste, using a fully consistent dynamic model of M aterial I nputs, S tocks and O utputs (MISO-model). We review the stock modelling literature, propose a novel distinction of stock-driven versus inflow-driven approaches and situate the MISO-model as the latter. We then investigate the global dynamics of socio-metabolic flows and in-use stocks from 1900 to 2014, explore model sensitivities and quantify and attribute uncertainty. Two exemplary scenarios are presented. Through these innovations for ew-MFA, we enable a dynamic and comprehensive assessment of resource use, stocks and all wastes in the socio-economic metabolism.

Subfields: Environmental Engineering, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f1ea26694b7eb3fd48b71fc2bf0b02d9a27594f5

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Environmental Engineering

1. T. Wiedmann
2. Robbie M. Andrew
3. S. Giljum
4. Manfred Lenzen
5. Klaus Hubacek
6. G. P. Peters
7. J. Minx
8. D. Guan

In Strategy and Management

1. Robbie M. Andrew
2. S. Giljum
3. Yong Geng
4. Klaus Hubacek
5. T. Wiedmann
6. J. Minx
7. Alf Hornborg
8. J. Naustdalslid

Citations in the corpus

• Global patterns of ecologically unequal exchange: Implications for sustainability in the 21st century (2021, methodology): “And while unequal exchange enables biophysical and economic growth in the benefitting regions, it entails continued inequalities between countries and shifting of environmental burdens to extractive regions (Wiedmann and Lenzen, 2018).”
• A review of trends and drivers of greenhouse gas emissions by sector from 1990 to 2018 (2021, background): “Material stocks, which will remain in use over decadal time periods, reached 928 Gt in 2014, with a growth of 3.9% per year since 2010 and a 26-fold increase since 1900 (Wiedenhofer et al 2019).”