Environmental impacts of consumption and production in Switzerland:
Environmentally extended input-output-analysis
17th SETAC Europe LCA Symposium Budapest, 28. February 2011
Dr. Niels Jungbluth
ESU-services Ltd., Uster, Switzerland
U
E S S U
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Outline
• Project goals
• Methodology
• Results
– policy recommendations – methodological issues
• Outlook (possibilities for updates)
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Project Goals
• Develop a method for comprehensive analysis of
environmental pressures in Switzerland (pilot project) – A production and consumption perspective
– All relevant environmental issues – Combination of EE-IOA and LCA
• Set up a data base for analysis with reference year 2005
• Provision as SimaPro data for further analysis
• Identify important areas of consumption and production
Two perspectives on environmental impacts
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Production perspective
induced by:
Domestic final demand
Exports
Domestic environ- mental impacts
Environmental impacts abroad
Consumption perspective
induced by:
Domestic final demand
Exports
Domestic environ- mental impacts
Environmental impacts abroad
Source: Rütter+Partner
Production perspective takes the view of direct impacts in a country
Consumption perspective investigates the impacts due to national consumption
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Combination of methods and data
IOT
domestic intermediate inputs (CHF/CHF)
direct emissions (kg/CHF)
IOT imported intermediate inputs (CHF/CHF)
imported goods (kg/CHF)
foreign trade statistic imports per sector
(kg/a)
LCA database cumulative emissions
(kg/kg)
IOT
final demand (CHF/a) direct emissions
(kg/a)
imported goods (kg/a)
total consumption (emissions/a)
total exports (emissions/a)
total production (emissions/a)
Several data sources are combined for the analysis
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Production perspective
Primary sector most important for domestic emissions
Total balance
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Imports cause 60% of environmental impacts due to Swiss consumption
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Consumption perspective
Nutrition and mobility most intensive per money spent
40% of the environmental pressure due to nutrition occurs abroad
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Different indicators on household consumption
Energy and GHG indicators underestimate the contribution of nutrition
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Verification by comparison with LCA data
Uncertainties estimated in the range of 20-30%
☺
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Setting targets
40% to 60% reduction of total impacts is necessary
Conclusions
• The combination of LCA and IOT provides a good
possibility for investigating environmental impacts of consumption
• Imports to Switzerland account for 60% of environmental impacts
• Consumption of food accounts for 30% of total impact
• Considerable reductions of environmental impacts are necessary
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Outlook
• Ten principal data sources and steps of analysis can be refined with three different goals:
– Better verification of the results in LCA and EE-IOA with additional or alternative
approaches
– Improve the data for 2005 for known shortcomings
– Update for a new reference year
Acknowledgements
• This study has been elaborated in collaboration with Dr. Carsten Nathani
• We thank the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) for financing this study
• Here we present our personal viewpoint and not this of the FOEN
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Annexe
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Two approaches for the total balance
0.00E+00 2.00E+13 4.00E+13 6.00E+13 8.00E+13 1.00E+14 1.20E+14 1.40E+14 1.60E+14 1.80E+14
emissions, residence
principle
import, goods import, services
exports consumption emissions, territorial
principle
import, goods export, goods
consumption
eco-points 2006 by Switzerland in 2005
Emission into air Pt Emission into surface water Pt Emission into ground water Pt Emission into top soil Pt Energy resources Pt Natural resources Pt Deposited waste Pt
EE-IOT LCA and trade balance
Differences for imports and exports important for total balance
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Comparison of exports
- 10 20 30 40 50 60
LCA&trade EE-IOT
MM tonnes CO2-eq per year
Food, beverages, tobacco Other biomass products Chemicals and chemical products Metals and minerals
Manufactured goods Electricity and energy Services
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Higher exports in calculation with IOT
• Underestimation of exporting fine chemicals in LCA
approach. High prices? Better LCA data for chemical industry in CH
• Underestimation of service export because not included in trade balance
• Underestimation of electricity exports in IOT
(only 1/3) Re-exports underestimated. Disaggregation in IOT would be necessary.
