• Energy Research

The comparison of the Ecological Footprint and its counterpart (i.e. biocapacity) allow for a classification of the world's countries as ecological creditors (Ecological Footprint lower than biocapacity) or debtors (Ecological Footprint higher than biocapacity). This classification is a national scale assessment on an annual time scale that provides a view of the ecological assets appropriated by the local population versus the natural ecological endowment of a country. We show that GDP per capita over a certain threshold is related with the worsening of the footprint balance in countries classified as ecological debtors. On the other hand, this correlation is lost when ecological creditor nations are considered. There is evidence that governments and investors from high GDP countries are playing a crucial role in impacting the environment at the global scale which is significantly affecting the geography of sustainability and preventing equal opportunities for development. In particular, international market dynamics and the concentration of economic power facilitate the transfer of biocapacity related to “land grabbing”, i.e. large scale acquisition of agricultural land. This transfer mainly occurs from low to high GDP countries, regardless of the actual need of foreign biocapacity, as expressed by the national footprint balance. A first estimation of the amount of biocapacity involved in this phenomenon is provided in this paper in order to better understand its implications on global sustainability and national and international land use policy.

The allocation of emissions embodied in international trade is crucial to evaluate the real impact of countries in the climate change and their responsibility in greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper we apply a new theoretical framework that allocates the emissions embodied in international trade and computes the consequent carbon transferred across countries, according to a consumption-based accounting. The method uses the value of goods traded internationally and the respective carbon intensity as a average national emissions coefficient.. We analyze a trilateral trade system composed by Sweden, Italy and Poland during the period 2000-2008. We find that, with respect to the conventional greenhouse gas national inventory schemes, consumption-based accounting implies an increase of Italian and Swedish emission responsibility by 1.4% and 11.8%, respectively, and a decrease of Polish one by 2.81%. We also assess the relevance of this framework at the sectoral level by hypothesizing a shift of Italian imports of Machinery and Transport Equipment from Poland to Sweden. We deduce that, through appropriate policies, importer nations could be encouraged to find producers with the best environmental performances while exporter nations could be induced to reduce their carbon intensity to stimulate the international demand for their goods. Finally, we discuss some policy implications deriving from the application of the consumption-based accounting. The analysis performed in the paper suggests that the consumption-based accounting could be an important tool in the climate change challenge to reduce global emissions.

Abstract The paper discusses different methods to assign the responsibility for Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: the geographical approach, based on the IPCC guidelines for GHG inventory; the consumer responsibility approach, based on the Ecological Footprint methodology; the Carbon Emission Added (CEA) approach that adopts the Embodied Energy-Emergy Analysis method. The last approach tries to solve the problem between the consumer and producer accounting principles, considering also the emissions of developing countries.

Dr. Maud’s letter introduces many interesting aspects andquestions that are worth clarification. The fact that a mereeconomic management of productive systems is leadinghumanity to the destruction of the planet is, in our opinion,quite clear. Sustainability is a complex concept that needs tobe addressed with a complex approach. One singularfunction, although very suitable, will never be exhaustiveand able to explain all the aspects of sustainability.1. AssumptionsThe authors agree with the two assumptions made by Dr.Maud:A. Emergy evaluation is the holistic approach mostappropriate for analyzing the systems that are at theinterface between natural and human systems. Agricul-tural and zootechnical systems are therefore those inwhich emergy evaluation best expresses its potential.Nonetheless, it is not an omni-comprehensiveinstrumentable to focus on every particular aspect of a system.B. Both poultry systems have a good economic response,the conventional for the lower cost of production, theorganic for the increasing demand of this type of food,especially in top level restaurants.One point, for which we have a different opinion, is abasic aspect of sustainability: according to Dr. Maud, itseems that sustainability is the sum of ecological andeconomic aspects, and that the two aspects should beconsidered separately. We think that the two aspects have adifferent hierarchical value: economic advantage can beinduced or driven by laws, social behaviors, politicaldecisions, etc., if (necessary condition) ecological–physicalsustainability is already achieved. If we consider a systemthat is not economically profitable but ecologicallysustainable, a change in the socio-economic frameworkcan (and should!) enhance economic performance, main-taining the same physical conditions. The contrary, however,is not true: if the goal is economic profit, someenvironmental aspects could be irreversibly damaged. Atmost, we may have a ‘‘compatible’’, but not a sustainable,development.2. The EmMoney use in Emergy evaluationFrom a theoretical point of view, a direct link betweenemergy and economic values is represented by the so-called‘‘emergy-to-money ratio’’ (EMR), which is calculated as theratio of the total emergy flow to the related monetaryevidence. It is expressed in sej/[currency]. Its expression isderived from a macro-systemic (i.e. a nation or a region)analysis by dividing the total annual emergy by the grossdomestic product (GDP). Therefore, EMR depends on thetotal emergy flow, GDP, prices and exchange rates amongcurrencies. Only emergy is directly related to physicalentities. The others are determined by market dynamics.Hence, when EMR is used as a conversion factor to measurethe emergy related to money flows, the market partiallyaffects the emergy content of some flows, arbitrarilyeliminating or creating a portion of emergy.

This article presents two different approaches for the study of the role of carbon as a fundamental resource for life on Earth. The article is composed of two parts, the first devoted to the description of global warming potential (GWP), a conventional standard index introduced in the early 1990s. It is acknowledged by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a useful tool for evaluating the role of greenhouse gases and their changes in concentration induced in the context of greenhouse effect and climate change. GWP is also applied worldwide in the framework of emission mitigation policies of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The second part of this article is devoted to physiological carbon balance from an atmospheric, oceanic, land biotic, marine biotic, and mineral point of view. The carbon cycle is also affected by anthropogenic emissions that play a crucial role in the net carbon balance. This role can be accounted by the IPCC Greenhouse Gas Inventory, which is briefly mentioned. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract In recent years, integrated building design practices based on the definition of “green building” criteria as common standards of measurement have been promoted. For example, Green Building Rating Systems such as LEED (US) and BREEAM (UK) provide national standards for developing high-performance sustainable buildings. However, integrated environmental accounting methods and global sustainability indicators are still required to evaluate the general environmental performances of buildings, because housing is greatly concerned with global environmental problems such as the use of non-renewable energy, the overexploitation of materials, the exhaustion of resources and the wasting of energy. In this work, an emergy (spelled with an “m”) analysis has been applied to a building to account for the main energy and material inflows to the processes of building manufacturing, maintenance and use. Building materials, technologies and structural elements have been measured and compared to each other in order to evaluate their impacts and to provide a basic calculation that may be used for evaluation and selection. A comprehensive appraisal of the building industry is then expected through a series of synthetic indices. Results represent a source of information that will also be useful for future studies on the urban and regional scale.

Ladakh traditional farming system has been included on the F.A.O. list of possible “Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems”, worthy of being preserved and conserved. The paper describes and assesses cultivation practices in a typical familymanaged farm, located in central Ladakh, analysing how natural resources are exploited, conserved and recycled. Emergy evaluation, an environmental accounting methodology, has been applied to evaluate and compare five staple crop productions: barley, wheat, pea, mustard, and fodder alfalfa. Unit Emergy Values of products (UEV, emergy per unit product, a measure of the environmental production cost) are calculated, taking into account the inputs to production such as water from glaciers, soil fertility, human and animal labour, and more. Results show that the traditional agricultural practices in Ladakh, completely supported by renewable flows, are efficient in the use of local resources. In fact, the UEVs of agroproducts are similar to those of analogous products of conventional agriculture (e.g. 5.27E+05 and 6.64E+05 semj/J for barley and wheat in Ladakh, respectively; 7.37E+05 semj/J for corn in USA), though the inputs of Ladakh agriculture are strongly limited in type and quantity. At the same time, local farmers can create, maintain and rebuild soil functions whose UEV is 1.62E+07 semj/J. Keywords: Ladakh, agrosystem, emergy, environment, sustainability

This paper analyses the ecosystem services provided by a regional park in the South of Italy. The park, constituted by 12 municipalities, aims at facilitating a smart management of cultural-historic and environmental heritage as well as the optimization in the use of local resources and peculiarities. The ecosystem services actually provided by the park (e.g. CO2 sequestration) or potentially usable (e.g. the production of olive-oil) have been identified. The aim is to highlight the essential importance of the natural capital stock and the services it provides for the local economy and for those who can take benefit from them. Neglecting the ecosystem services’ value in decision making processes entails the loss of several assets – in some cases un-replaceable, such as local biodiversity – which may imply serious consequences for the overall ecosystem and the sustainability of the local economic system.