Quantifying the ecosystem impacts of resource footprints

摘要: Multiregional input-output (MRIO) analyses quantify a consumer’s resource footprint (eg, for carbon emissions or water use) across the globe, taking into account production, trade and transformation steps along the supply chain. However, the spatially differentiated environmental consequences of these resource footprints have so far been poorly quantified due to the complexity of the relationships between resource use and environmental consequences. In order to provide such a measure of consequence, we combine for the first time an MRIO-based resource footprint approach with a novel life cycle impact assessment methodology called LC-Impact. By combining these two data sources we can measure the ecosystem consequences of resource footprints. The LC-Impact dataset features spatially differentiated measures of impact; an important trait given the widely varying environmental consequences of resource use throughout the world. We find that an account of the ecosystem consequences of resource footprints provides a quite different picture of consumers’ global impacts.