Domestic footprint of the EU and member states: methodology and results (2010-2018): assessing the environmental domestic impacts of production and consumption activities

Media type: E-Book

Title: Domestic footprint of the EU and member states: methodology and results (2010-2018) : assessing the environmental domestic impacts of production and consumption activities

Contributor: Sanyé Mengual, Esther [Author]; Tosches, Davide [Author]; Sala, Serenella [Author]

Corporation: Europäische Kommission, Gemeinsame Forschungsstelle

Published: Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2022

Extent: 1 Online-Ressource (circa 70 Seiten); Illustrationen

Language: English

DOI: 10.2760/441655

ISBN: 9789276408284

Identifier:

Publisher, production or purchase order numbers: Sonstige Nummer: J-NA-30796-EN-N

Keywords: environmental impact ; production ; consumption ; pollution control measures ; climate change ; ozone ; reduction of gas emissions ; greenhouse gas ; water resources ; land use ; exploitation of resources ; fossil fuel ; eutrophication ; product life ; environmental indicator ; EU Member State ; research report ; Graue Literatur

Origination:

Footnote: Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 44-48

Description: Towards assessing the environmental domestic impacts of production and consumption activities in the European Union (EU), the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC) developed the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-based Domestic Footprint indicator. The Domestic Footprint aims at assessing the environmental impacts associated to emissions and resource extraction occurring within a Member State boundary (or the whole EU boundary) by adopting a productionand territorial-based perspective. Therefore, it accounts for both production and consumption activities taking place within the Member State's domestic territory, e.g., from economic sectors such as industry, agriculture, energy, mining, and services; and also encompass those impacts from households and government's activities (e.g., transport, heating). It is meant to be used in association with the consumption footprint, which instead account for the trade-related impacts as well. Both indicators are essential for providing integrated assessment, e.g. in the context of zero pollution. Assessing the Domestic Footprint of individual Member States and the EU allows for identification of environmental hotspots, setting baseline for monitoring of environmental performance progresses and against which testing policy options and scenarios. Domestic footprint focuses exclusively to what is happening within MS boundaries. The Domestic Footprint builds upon an extensive and integrated data collection of detailed information of emissions to the environment (air, water and soil) and resource extraction within the EU and Member State boundaries. This results into a comprehensive inventory of the environmental pressures due to domestic production and consumption. This inventory is then characterized with the Environmental Footprint (EF reference package 3.0), including 16 environmental impact categories which can be presented as individual impacts as well as normalised and weighted into a single score. This report, building upon previous JRC studies, expands the assessment and details the updated methodological approach for the data collection of the Domestic Footprint indicator for each impact category. The exercise entailed a systematic review of data sources and collected data. Furthermore, the assessment of the Domestic Footprint at both the EU and Member States level for the period 2000-2018 is presented, including an analysis of the decoupling of environmental impacts from economic growth and the assessment of the domestic footprint against the Planetary Boundaries (PBs). The EU Domestic Footprint showed a steady decrease for the period 2000-2018, confirming an absolute decoupling of domestic environmental impacts from economic growth. Most of the impact categories also showed absolute decoupling for this period, barring mineral resource use and land use which increased along time although at a slower pace than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), leading to relative decoupling. Considering an absolute sustainability perspective, the EU Domestic Footprint transgresses the PBs on climate change and particulate matter (being both in the high-risk area), and the PB regarding fossil resources (being in the uncertainty area). Member States showed a different contribution to the EU Domestic Footprint and to the different impact categories. The role of individual countries and their differences in impact per capita depended on the level of economic growth, the technological context (e.g., energy technologies and electricity market) and the availability of natural resources. Three impact categories contributed the most to the EU Domestic Footprint single score: climate change, particulate matter and human toxicity, non-cancer. An analysis at the elementary flow level (i.e. environmental pressures) unveiled that: i.) several impact indicators are driven by a few environmental pressures (i.e., resources used, or substances emitted to the environment), ii.) some environmental pressures contribute to diverse environmental impacts (such as NOx contributing to acidification, eutrophication marine, particulate matter), and iii.) some environmental pressures are resulting from the same anthropic activities (e.g., agricultural production, combustion of fossil fuels).

Access State: Open Access

Rights information: Attribution (CC BY)

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