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Domestic Footprint of the EU and Member States: methodology and results (2010-2018)
Towards assessing the environmental domestic impacts of production and consumption activities in the European Union (EU), the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC) developed the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-based Domestic Footprint indicator. The Domestic Footprint aims at assessing the environmental impacts associated to emissions and resource extraction occurring within a Member State boundary (or the whole EU boundary) by adopting a production- and territorial-based perspective. Therefore, it accounts for both production and consumption activities taking place within the Member State’s domestic territory, e.g., from economic sectors such as industry, agriculture, energy, mining, and services; and also encompass those impacts from households and government’s activities (e.g., transport, heating). It is meant to be used in association with the consumption footprint, which instead account for the trade-related impacts as well. Both indicators are essential for providing integrated assessment, e.g. in the context of zero pollution. Assessing the Domestic Footprint of individual Member States and the EU allows for identification of environmental hotspots, setting baseline for monitoring of environmental performance progresses and against which testing policy options and scenarios. Domestic footprint focuses exclusively to what is happening within MS boundaries. The Domestic Footprint builds upon an extensive data collection of detailed information of emissions to the environment and resource extraction within the EU and Member State boundaries resulting into a comprehensive inventory of the environmental pressures due to domestic production and consumption. This inventory is then characterized with the Environmental Footprint (EF reference package 3.0), including 16 environmental impact categories which can be normalised and weighted into a single score.This report, building and expanding previous JRC studies, details the updated methodological approach for the data collection of the Domestic Footprint indicator for each impact category. The exercise entailed a systematic review of data sources and collected data. Furthermore, the assessment of the Domestic Footprint at both the EU and Member States level for the period 2000-2018 is presented, including an analysis of the decoupling of environmental impacts from economic growth and the assessment of the domestic footprint against the Planetary Boundaries (PBs).The EU Domestic Footprint showed a steady decrease for the period 2000-2018, confirming an absolute decoupling of domestic environmental impacts from economic growth. Most of the impact categories also showed absolute decoupling for this period, apart from mineral resource use and land use which increased along time although at a slower pace than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), leading to relative decoupling. Considering an absolute sustainability perspective, the EU Domestic Footprint transgresses the PBs on climate change and particulate matter (being both in the high-risk area), and the PB regarding fossil resources (located in the uncertainty area). Member States showed a different contribution to the EU Domestic Footprint and to the different impact categories. The role of individual countries and their differences in impact per capita depended on the level of economic growth, the technological context (e.g., energy technologies and electricity market) and the availability of natural resources. Three impact categories contributed the most to the EU Domestic Footprint single score: climate change, particulate matter and human toxicity, non-cancer. An analysis at the elementary flow level (i.e. environmental pressures) unveiled that several indicators are driven by a small group of environmental pressures (i.e., resource, substances emitted to the environment), some environmental pressures contribute to diverse environmental impacts, and some environmental pressures are linked to the same anthropic activities (e.g., agricultural production, combustion of fossil fuels). ; JRC.D.3 - Land Resources
Domestic Footprint of the EU and Member States: methodology and results (2010-2018)
Towards assessing the environmental domestic impacts of production and consumption activities in the European Union (EU), the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC) developed the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-based Domestic Footprint indicator. The Domestic Footprint aims at assessing the environmental impacts associated to emissions and resource extraction occurring within a Member State boundary (or the whole EU boundary) by adopting a production- and territorial-based perspective. Therefore, it accounts for both production and consumption activities taking place within the Member State’s domestic territory, e.g., from economic sectors such as industry, agriculture, energy, mining, and services; and also encompass those impacts from households and government’s activities (e.g., transport, heating). It is meant to be used in association with the consumption footprint, which instead account for the trade-related impacts as well. Both indicators are essential for providing integrated assessment, e.g. in the context of zero pollution. Assessing the Domestic Footprint of individual Member States and the EU allows for identification of environmental hotspots, setting baseline for monitoring of environmental performance progresses and against which testing policy options and scenarios. Domestic footprint focuses exclusively to what is happening within MS boundaries. The Domestic Footprint builds upon an extensive data collection of detailed information of emissions to the environment and resource extraction within the EU and Member State boundaries resulting into a comprehensive inventory of the environmental pressures due to domestic production and consumption. This inventory is then characterized with the Environmental Footprint (EF reference package 3.0), including 16 environmental impact categories which can be normalised and weighted into a single score.This report, building and expanding previous JRC studies, details the updated methodological approach for the data collection of the Domestic Footprint indicator for each impact category. The exercise entailed a systematic review of data sources and collected data. Furthermore, the assessment of the Domestic Footprint at both the EU and Member States level for the period 2000-2018 is presented, including an analysis of the decoupling of environmental impacts from economic growth and the assessment of the domestic footprint against the Planetary Boundaries (PBs).The EU Domestic Footprint showed a steady decrease for the period 2000-2018, confirming an absolute decoupling of domestic environmental impacts from economic growth. Most of the impact categories also showed absolute decoupling for this period, apart from mineral resource use and land use which increased along time although at a slower pace than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), leading to relative decoupling. Considering an absolute sustainability perspective, the EU Domestic Footprint transgresses the PBs on climate change and particulate matter (being both in the high-risk area), and the PB regarding fossil resources (located in the uncertainty area). Member States showed a different contribution to the EU Domestic Footprint and to the different impact categories. The role of individual countries and their differences in impact per capita depended on the level of economic growth, the technological context (e.g., energy technologies and electricity market) and the availability of natural resources. Three impact categories contributed the most to the EU Domestic Footprint single score: climate change, particulate matter and human toxicity, non-cancer. An analysis at the elementary flow level (i.e. environmental pressures) unveiled that several indicators are driven by a small group of environmental pressures (i.e., resource, substances emitted to the environment), some environmental pressures contribute to diverse environmental impacts, and some environmental pressures are linked to the same anthropic activities (e.g., agricultural production, combustion of fossil fuels). ; JRC.D.3 - Land Resources
Domestic Footprint of the EU and Member States: methodology and results (2010-2018)
SANYE MENGUAL Esther (author) / TOSCHES Davide (author) / SALA Serenella (author)
2022-01-01
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