Workshop on footprinting

What is the impact of the UK’s activities elsewhere?

Tony Weighell

JNCC

1.Background

1.1There is an extensive published literature on the potential and actual use of indicators to monitor the links between the consumption of raw materials and the associated environmental impacts, including the links between domestic consumption and overseas impacts.The literature (and this short paper) focuses on attempts to use existing national and international material consumption statistics to develop meaningful environmental impact indicators.

1.2The short, scene setting, footprinting presentation on the 8th will build on this paper (rather than repeating the content) and provide an introduction to the discussion questions which have been circulated.

1.3The natural environment provides the UK economy and its population with food, energy, construction materials and water. Current consumption patterns meanthat the UK landmass and itssurrounding territorial waters, cannot provide all of these services required to support the national economy. Our economy has shown long term growth since 1990 but consumption of domestically extracted raw materials (minerals, fossil fuels and biomass) has remained relatively stable. Economic growth has therefore been accompanied by an increase in imported raw materials.The UK economy and its future growth are clearly dependent on imported raw materials.

1.4In the words of the Office for National Statistics (1),the observed economic and import growthtrends suggest ‘that some of the environmental impacts associated with consumption are being transferred abroad’.The UK is reliant on overseas ecosystems to provide essential goods and services to the UK economy. We need to identify which systems we are dependent on, the nature of our impacts on these systems and how to keep these impacts within safe ecological limits (2). We are not the only country exploiting these global ecosystems and operating within safe limits will not be solely the responsibility of the UK.

1.5The UK’s use of natural resources, imported or domestically produced, can be measured through Material Flow Analysis (MFA) which records national production of minerals, fossil fuels and biomass and quantifies imports and exports (3 & 4). This measurement of physical flows of materials through the economy forms the basis for monitoring the economic use of raw materials (Domestic Material Consumption), identifying source countries, recognisingboth long term trends and new developments. Material flow data for the UK is published in the annualEnvironmental Accounts published by the Office for National Statistics (5). There are international standards for collecting and reporting this data and it has been routinely gathered for 40 years allowing long term analysis of trends.

1.6The UK’s dependence on overseas ecosystem services is most clearly illustrated by our high level of dependence on imported biomass for food, timber and bioenergy. HM Revenue and Customs data allows detailed import profiling and provides an insight into the key dependencies of the UK economy on overseas biomass production (6).

2. Material flow indicators

2.1 Data obtained by measuring physical material flows can form the basis for a variety of indicators designed to monitor resource efficiency and, potentially, the environmental impacts of consumption. These are described here under three different categories:

  • Use of primary data – direct use of the original data (usually reported in tonnes) on material production or import and export flows as summary indicators;
  • Ecological footprinting- involving the significant transformation of the original MFA data into a single measure (global hectare) to report on environmental impacts of consumption ;
  • Land and water use intensity– involving minimal data transformation to assess specific resource requirements to supply specific materials, particularly biomass.

2.2 Primary data

2.2.1 The Office for National Statistics currently reports annually on the UK’s use of raw materials (5) in the form of a set of summary indicators (7). Most relevant to the UK’s use of overseas ecosystem services is our use of imported biomass. Currently 30% of the biomass used by the UK economy is imported, including 40% of our food and 75% of our biofuels. In respect of biomass, primary data collected/collated and published by the ONS or HM Revenue and Customs can provide numerical measures of:

  • Domestic production, imports and exports;
  • Detailed analysis of import flows in terms of mass (weight) and values (Sterling), including recognition of key imports such as soya products, palm oil, timber or fish.

2.2.2 The advantages of using this primary data to monitor biomass consumption are that the data are:

  • not transformed from their original state;
  • routinely gathered and regularly reported on using international standards and form part of a data set extending back in time for 40 years;
  • easily understood and can be related directly to other national statistics such as measures of economic activity (GDP) or population trends to assess resource efficiency or drivers of biomass consumption;
  • capable of defining key global sources of biomass utilised by the UK economy in space (geographical location) and time.

2.2.3 The disadvantage of this primary material flow data is that in terms of the impacts associated with consumption‘moredoes not necessarily mean worse and less does not mean better’ (8). Nor do the type of summary mass flow indicators currently reported by UK and other governments directly relate to specific environmental or ecosystem impacts.

2.3 Ecological footprinting

2.3.1 Ecological footprinting quantifies annual supply and demand for ecosystem products and services (9). It takes a combined approach which aggregates all anthropogenic pressures (land degradation, climate change, food consumption) which are typically evaluated independently. Ecological footprinting quantifies resource use and wastes with a single unit of measurement being used to measure impacts. This is the ‘Global Hectare’ which is a standardised measure of the land required to produce the resources required by a national economy (region, organisation, individual) and accommodate the associated waste products. The technique also provides a measure of biocapacity (again as global hectares) which, in the national context, is the annual production of ‘biologically provided resources’.

2.3.2 The advantages of the footprinting technique are:

  • its ability to develop an aggregate indicator across all types of consumption commodities;
  • its inclusion of CO2 emissions;
  • Its ability capture the widest possible implications of production and consumption;
  • facilitation of comparisons (for example between countries or regions within countries) by standardising the measurement of impacts;
  • its ability to emphasise the discrepancy between national demand for resources (footprint) and biocapacity.

2.3.3The disadvantages of ecological footprinting are:

  • the technique is not transparent and not easily understood, involving complex transformations of original material flow data;
  • whilst emphasising that countries such as the UK are drawing on productive capacity elsewhere it cannot determine where this capacity is geographically, or how impacts may be occurring (10).

2.4 Land and water use intensity

2.4.1 For imported agricultural commodities utilised by the UK it is possible to calculate the land (6, 11) and water (12) requirements for their production. Trade data, which describes imported biomass material in detail and identifies source country, can be combined with country specific crop yield and water demand data to determine a total national overseas land and water requirement (as summary indicators) or used to quantify land and water impacts in particular geographical areas. Land intensity is reported in hectares, water intensity in cubic metres. Geographical analysis can be according to country or ecological unit.

2.4.2 The advantages of land/water use intensity calculations and the indicators obtained are:

  • there is minimal data transformation from the original form involving a simple one stage conversion from mass of material to water or land intensity;
  • the geographical location of the water and land use can be determined to at least the country level and possibly to specific ecological units such as biomes;
  • specific key agricultural commodities (soya, palm oil) can be analysed;
  • taken together or separately these intensity measurements can be used as measures of pressures being applied to specific ecosystems which can be related to ecosystem sensitivities.

2.4.3 The disadvantages of this technique are;

  • It can only be applied to one type of raw material, biomass;
  • It can only be applied to biomass sourced from agricultural and plantation systems.

3. Overview

3.1 There are strong links between the UK economy and overseas ecosystems. The UK makes use of cultural, regulating and provisioning services from these systems but only the latter are amenable to quantification. Measurement of the physical flows of biomass from overseas ecosystems into the UK provides the basis for a range of potential indicators.

3.2 No single indicator can serve to relate UK consumption of imported materials directly to ecosystem or biodiversity impacts overseas. Material Flow Analysis provides the basis for a set (basket) of indicators which can:

  • Summarise the overall environmental impacts of UK material consumption through Ecological Footprinting;
  • Summarise UK consumption of biomass, relate this to other economic data and monitor the role of imports through use of primary data;
  • Identify and monitor in detail specific biomass flows (palm oil, soya, fish, timber etc) through primary data;
  • Quantify land and water use intensity associated with agricultural commodities to produce a national summary indicator;
  • Quantify land and water use intensity associated with specific agricultural commodities sourced from specific ecosystems to produce indicators tailored to measure pressures exerted on key global ecosystems.

♦

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  1. Sheerin, C. (2002). UK Material flow accounting. Economic Trends No. 583.
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  1. Policy Review on Decoupling:Development of indicators to assess decoupling of economic

development and environmental pressure in the EU-25 and AC-3countries.

  1. WWF (World Wide Fund For Nature) (2008) UK Water Footprint: the impact of the UK’s food and fibre consumption on global water resources. WWF-UK, Surrey.