MRIO for Global Resource Policy

The global consumption of natural resources has increased rapidly in the last few decades due to an increase in world population and significant economic growth of transition counties such as Brazil, Russia, India, China or South Africa. This trend is likely to continue for some time, further accelerating the depletion of fossil, metal and mineral resources and even threating the sustainability of biomass renewal. At the same time, the globalization of product supply chains has segmented the production processes of goods and services and increased international specialization of production. This implies the necessity of global resource policy to enhance and ensure the sustainability of resource use at a global level, in addition to sustainable resource management in each country. As is the case with global climate policy such multilateral initiatives need a sound underpinning of scientific facts, databases and models. Multiregional input-output (MRIO) analysis is one of the most powerful tools to analyse the relationship between resource extraction, global supply chains and consumption. MRIO analysis has been shown to quantitatively support the discussion on producers' and consumers' responsibilities for greenhouse gas emissions and the same can be expected for resource management.

Edited by: Keisuke Nansai and Thomas Wiedmann