Anke Schaffartzik
Thursday 28th June, 12.00 – 13.30, ICTA-UAB
In the 21st century, global resource use has grown at unprecedented rates. Based on the concept of social metabolism and the tools through which it can be measured, this presentation will delve into the international patterns underlying current high levels of growth in material resource use. What role does stagnating (or even declining!) material use in the high-income countries play? Can the emerging economies, with China as a prominent example, continue to grow? Does “resource efficiency” – currently at the top of the policy list – help?
In exploring such questions, I will illustrate how our perspective on global and national economies necessarily shifts once we move beyond monetary indicators and consider biophysical perspectives. Material resource extraction, trade, and different consumption measures will be presented. This empirical material will allow us to identify and discuss patterns of exchange between countries and the appropriation of resources they entail. Together, we will consider to what extent the resulting international material inequality must and can be addressed in conceptualizing alternative, sustainable futures.
Brief description of the method
The empirical material presented in “Patterns and inequalities in global material resource use” rely on applications of the concept of social metabolism. This concept postulates that societies are simultaneously socio-cultural and biophysical and that in order to reproduce themselves biophysically, they require resource inputs and outputs. Economy-wide material flow accounting is one well-established method with which to quantitatively study societies’ metabolism. In this type of environmental accounting, the material flows that cross the boundary either between a society and its environment (extraction as input, waste and emissions as output) or between societies (trade) are accounted for. Intensified globalization has raised the need to account for resource use, no matter where in the world it occurs, associated with a given level of final demand. The “material footprint” indicator has been developed to address this need within the framework of material flow accounting.
Compulsory readings:
Fischer-Kowalski, M., Haberl, H., 2015. Social metabolism: a metric for biophysical growth and degrowth, in: Martinez-Alier, J., Muradian, R. (Eds.), Handbook of Ecological Economics. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, Cheltenham, pp. 100–138.