National Environmental Pressure Indicators And Dematerialization Analysis

Environment is both the cause and the core issue of sustainable development. In order to turn the concept of sustainable development into a realizable management framework and become an pragmatic strategy, both the environmental pressure and the environmental carrying capacity of a nation must be measured and monitored. Devising effective policies and measures based on such measurement and monitoring to keep economic development on a resource-reducing track is essential toward a sustainable future.Based on material flow analysis and ecological footprint method and indicators, a new system of indicators for measuring the aggregate environmental pressure and pressure intensity have been proposed in this work. These indicators include: domestic environmental load, domestic ecological footprint, environmental stress, footprint intensity index, and ecological overshoot index. Environmental efficiency indicators are formulated by combining these indicators with macro-economic output indicator, the GDP. The new indicators focus on the environment of a nation, and can be employed in measuring, evaluating and monitoring the aggregate environmental load, pressure intensity, resource-use and environmental efficiencies of a nation. Analyses on the rebound effect of economic growth and the reducing effect of efficiency increase can be done on the indicators. They can also be used in scenario analyses such as: what would be the GDP growth rate to achieve a given environmental pressure reduction target under a given environmental efficiency profile? Or alternatively, what would be the required environmental efficiency growth rate to achieve a given environmental pressure reduction target under a given GDP growth profile?The new indicator system is comprehensive in that, it considers both the input and the output sides of the socio-economic system, both resource use and environmental pollution, both renewable and non-renewable resources, and takes into account both environmental load and environmental carrying capacity. The new indicator system is a creative combination and expansion of the material flow analyses and ecological...