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Governments across the world are increasingly seeking to ensure that the products consumed in their countries meet certain sustainability standards. However, the places of production—where major impacts occur—are often distant from the places of consumption. Physical trade models are suited to estimate the link between consumption and production impacts for individual commodities, but often ignore trade in derived products, obtained by processing primary commodities, especially for non-food products. Derived products which are manufactured using multiple primary commodities, such as shoes containing leather, rubber, as well as other textile materials, pose a special challenge for these models. This can lead to biased assessments of sustainability risks and obscure leverage points to address them. To mitigate the risk of bias, here we present an approach for assessing the importance of accounting for trade in derived products when attributing impacts. We apply the approach to trade in rubber and bovine hide products and associated deforestation to assess the coverage of relevant products included in the European Union (EU) regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR), as well as to inform future revisions of the regulation's scope. We consider trade flows for 135 types of rubber products and 37 types of products derived from bovine hides. We find that rubber and bovine hides enter the EU at different stages of the supply chain. While natural rubber enters the EU at an early processing stage, through imports of raw natural rubber, most products derived from bovine hides enter the EU either as processed products or as consumer goods. Our results thus highlight that depending on the product, the share of total deforestation attributed to the EU's consumption could be significantly affected by choices in which derived products are accounted for. Weighting the costs and benefits of the inclusion of derived products for each commodity is therefore key to designing demand-side policies that cost-effectively and successfully address the deforestation risk associated with consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sufficiency is a normative principle that aims to reorganise the configurations between production and consumption to reduce ecological overshoot and improve human well-being. At its heart is the notion of "living well on less," recognising the need to restructure resource allocations between production and consumption hitherto unsustainable. Although sufficiency has gained attention from scholars and policymakers as a strategy to mitigate the climate crisis and resource management, evidence on its formation, causality, and antecedents remains fragmented. This paper reorders antecedents from three disciplinary roots of sufficiency: complementarity of capital, social metabolism, and altruism, to reorganise empirical evidence and examine the formation of sufficiency in producers and consumers. Through configurational analysis, we mapped the responses of Chilean producers and consumers to explore the conditions that enable the formation of sufficiency and the configurations that emerge as a result. Our findings reveal the prominence of three interrelated attributes for both agents: labour security, moral duty and intrinsic motivation, which, when combined, give rise to two complex and nonlinear approaches for producers and consumers, labelled aggregately as metabolic , limited and ecocentric configurations. These results suggest that intertwining different attributes allows actions and behaviours to be adopted regarding decreased resource use, drawing transformational leverage points towards sustainability. • We evaluate a formative measure of sufficiency in producers and consumers. • We empirically leverage our measure from three premises of sufficiency. • We reveal three interrelated attributes on sufficiency formation. • We apply configurational comparative methods to reveal multiple approaches. • We highlight sufficiency configurations as transformative leverage points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 requires countries to achieve responsible consumption and production patterns without exceeding safe environmental limits for natural resource use. This is particularly relevant to the global agri-food system, a major contributor to the exceedance of environmental limits such as cropland (a major component of the land-system change planetary boundary). However, little is known about how virtual cropland flows embedded in agri-food commodities jointly impact national consumption- and production-based environmental limits for cropland use in the context of responsible agri-food consumption and production. Using a multi-regional input-output model and cropland limits of agri-food consumption and production, we identified specific countries and commodity supply chains that contribute to the exceedance of production-based cropland limits of producer countries (both domestic and via trade), irrespective of whether their own consumption-based cropland limits are exceeded. For example, 86% of China's consumption-based cropland footprint originated from regions that exceeded their production-based cropland limits, even though China's per capita consumption footprint is within safe fair-share limits. This occurred mainly due to the consumption of domestically produced and imported commodities such as oilseeds, cereals, and fruit and vegetables. In addition, we identified patterns in international trade relationships that could inform national-level responsible agri-food consumption/production interventions across the global supply chain, thereby contributing to SDG 12. More stringent regulations and improved policies are required to reduce the exceedance of consumption-based and production-based environmental limits and avoid exceeding the global land-system change planetary boundary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High levels of resource consumption cause detrimental environmental change. Very low consumption may fail to meet basic needs. A major challenge for a sustainability transformation is to reduce inequalities and achieve a globally sustainable level of resource flows. By providing access to resources beyond national boundaries, trade could either lead to more equal international distribution or aggravate unequal distribution of material resources. For a sample of 173 countries between 1993 and 2010, we studied the role of trade and the upstream global appropriation of resources in international material inequality. Until the turn of the century, per capita material extraction was as unequally distributed as material consumption (extraction plus imports minus exports). Import and export flows as such do not greatly affect inequality. The global appropriation of materials associated with trade, however, decisively increased inequality until 2000. In the 21st century, decreasing inequality coincided with a sharp rise in global material extraction, appropriated by high and upper-middle income countries. Such growth-led reduction of inequality is not environmentally sustainable. It has, until now, been enabled by global trade patterns distributing resources in a way that can never be globally inclusive, putting especially the world's poorest countries at risk. Unlabelled Image • A synthetic inequality measure – the Theil index – is used to study material flows. • Trade as such does not greatly affect international material inequality. • The upstream material requirements of exports cause high inequality. • Inequality reductions since 2000 have been led by material growth. • Growth-led inequality reductions are neither sustainable nor fully inclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Rebound effects are the unintended consequences of improvements in energy efficiency. They refer to situations in which efficiency improvements are reduced or even reversed by changes in behavior. In many cases these effects stem from small behavior changes rooted in cultural values or from the interconnectedness of everyday practices. Practice theory has established itself in many social science disciplines, including ecological economics, and its focus on routinized activities in everyday life promises to provide beneficial insights to debates on rebound. Since this has not been done to date, this article aims to fill the gap by offering suggestions as to how practice theory can complement and enhance existing explanations of rebound effects. Drawing on existing practice theory research on energy consumption, we identify and discuss a number of starting points for practice theory-inspired research on rebound effects. These include the pivotal role of distributed agency between humans and non-humans (e.g. technical devices), the co-dependence of practices, the co-evolution of practices with systems of provision, as well as a general trend towards the acceleration of everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the importance of consumption as an underlying driver of CO 2 emissions, we examine the link between consumption and CO 2 emissions for Norwegian households. The main goal is to investigate whether there is a decoupling of consumption expenditures and the environmental impact as we move up the income ladder. By combining a 2007 Norwegian consumer expenditure survey with emission coefficients from an environmental input-output model, reflecting emissions embodied in both domestically produced and imported goods and services, we calculate the per capita carbon footprint. The results from the analysis suggest that the per capita carbon footprint is directly proportional to expenditure with an estimated elasticity close to unity, implying no decoupling. The finding is partly driven by a near zero-emission power sector, which leads to comparatively low emissions embodied in domestically-produced goods and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While having basic access to water resources is clearly critical for survival, the extent to which water consumption contributes to wellbeing once basic needs have been met is not clear. In this study the link between household water consumption and wellbeing is assessed via a household survey conducted in southern England and actual water consumption data for the same households received from their water supply company. While the study revealed a few correlations, in general no link was found between actual water use and wellbeing. This suggests that high wellbeing is attainable regardless of low water use (assuming basic needs are met). In fact, when assessed through individual rather than composite measures of wellbeing, a weak but statistically significant link was shown between higher water use and some indicators of low wellbeing. Our results also show that actual water use appears to be unlinked to environmental attitudes, attitudes to water use or willingness to adopt water saving measures. This suggests that seeking a sustained reduction in water consumption via attitudinal change alone is unlikely to be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the so-called rebound effect has traditionally pertained to the domain of neoclassical energy economics. In recent years, other disciplines have applied this concept in the context of the environmental assessment of products and policies, and multiple perspectives have unfolded more or less in parallel. Among these, the environmental rebound effect (ERE) perspective, focused on efficiency changes and indicators that go beyond energy to multiple environmental issues, has remained relatively unnoticed. This article thus asks the following questions: What are the foundational aspects of the ERE and how these relate to other perspectives? Are there irreconcilable differences between perspectives? And what is the value of the ERE towards a general framework? We map the fundamental ideas behind the ERE and find that the lack of articulation has resulted in inconsistent usage and lack of clarity. We also argue that the ERE offers many valuable insights for rebound assessment, such as the study of broader efficiency changes and of innovations aimed at tackling multiple environmental issues. Perhaps most importantly, the ERE helps bringing together the existing rebound perspectives, as its application shows that it is both possible and valuable to articulate broader definitions for the rebound effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally understood that greenhouse gasses produced by human activities are having a warming effect on the climate. Discussions concerning efforts to curb carbon dioxide emissions often focus on large countries. However, considerable resources have been spent to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by relatively small, open economies. Although, these economies are small players in international markets, international trade has an important influence on their economies. Investigating the outcome of efforts to curb emissions by these small, open economies provides insights into the situation faced by a large set of the world's economies. This paper has three objectives: (1) investigate the outcome of Denmark's efforts to reduce its carbon emissions by characterizing the relationship between Denmark's macroeconomic activity and carbon emissions; (2) determine the carbon content of Danish trade and document the important effects that growing trade with China has had on Danish consumption emissions; and (3), investigate the robustness of measures of consumption emissions under varying information requirements. Our analysis of the outcomes of Danish efforts to reduce carbon emissions suggest two, related lessons. First, small, open economies, should track both production and consumption emissions when evaluating their progress towards reducing carbon emissions. Second, international trade should be considered in the design of environmental policy. The Danish experience indicates that increasing trade with a much larger and more emission intensive country can have substantial influence on consumption emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The making of sustainable economies calls for sufficiency in production and consumption. The discussion, however, lacks a shared understanding on what it means to operationalize sufficiency. In this article, we review and analyze the concept of sufficiency with a focus on its linkages to different economic scales (with a focus on micro- and macroeconomics) and economic actors (particularly consumers and producers). Altogether 307 articles were screened, resulting in a final data set of 94 peer-reviewed articles. In addition to the core assumption of 'enoughness', we found three premises describing the concept: (1) complementarity of capitals, (2) social metabolism, and (3) altruism. In the reviewed literature, sufficiency is understood as both an end in itself and a means for bringing consumption and production within ecological limits. By conducting the first systematic literature review on sufficiency, the study explicates a more integrated understanding of sufficiency and highlights the need to treat sufficiency across economic scales and actors. In future research, empirical work should be emphasized to grasp the contextual varieties in the operationalization of sufficiency. • The first systematic literature review of sufficiency. • Three focal premises of sufficiency found. • Sufficiency is a transdisciplinary concept about 'enoughness'. • Sufficiency is a means and an end in the transition towards sustainable economies. • Sufficiency conceptualized according to different economic scales and actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is the Netherlands sustainable or not? The answer inherently involves addressing the issues of system boundaries, statistical units and a vision of sustainability. As an analytical answer we offer the Intenscope (IS), a two-dimensional graphical tool based on dimensionless percentages of triple rate ratios which overcomes several limitations of sustainability analyses. First, it is not sensitive to the size of statistical units so an area with twice the amount of resources of another, with double the population (and double the total consumption) would have the same triple ratio of population:biocapacity:consumption. Second, the IS is sensitive to anomalies which may originate either from the use of arbitrary statistical units (e.g. the boundaries of a city) or those which may indicate truly unsustainable practices. To judge spatial sustainability we use ecological footprint data from which we construct a plausible country plot based on the IS. Despite the relative nature of IS-analyses, the employed consumption:biocapacity ratio inherently refers to the absolute limit of sustainability: we cannot continually use more resources on a global scale than nature provides us with. The analysis introduces some associations of human preferences and attributions of settlement types which may help to elaborate sustainability policies based on voluntary action. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recent studies incorporating consumption into the relationship between GDP and conservation increasingly reveal that economic prosperity does not lead to improvements in environmental quality, even in cases where rich countries may appear to protect a greater proportion of their domestic resources. This study reinforces those findings for forest and species conservation across two groups of countries. Additionally, through explicit comparison with two previous EKC studies, I enable an illustration of precisely how EKC results are affected by the incorporation of consumption and highlight persistent problems with EKC analyses. Despite general linear modeling results showing that wealthy countries drive deforestation in poorer countries through the import of forest resources, EKC analyses can still indicate improvements in conservation for wealthier countries. Such contradictions suggest that recent methodological improvements to the EKC cannot guarantee the validity of evidence from EKC analyses. Poor quality of resource stocks data, the restrictive time scales that can be examined with those data, and the lack of consistent results across different groups of countries all speak to continued inadequacies of the EKC hypothesis and the need to focus on approaches that address actual behavior patterns exhibited by different income groups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper explores people's willingness to reduce travel consumption in support of the transition to a low-carbon pathway beyond COVID-19, using new survey data from UK car drivers and air travellers. Evidence from our study indicates that reductions of 24% - 30% to car use and 20% - 26% to air travel could be sustained in the long term. This potentially could lead to annual reductions of 343–529 kgCO 2 per car driver (20% - 29% of pre-COVID-19 car emissions) and 215–359 kgCO 2 per air traveller (10% - 20% of pre-COVID-19 emissions from flying), suggesting that behavioural change may be a major route to emissions reductions. We find that stated voluntary reductions are greater among those who report having 'more time to do creative things' since the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Hence, recovery policies promoting low-carbon leisure time may be a key to consumption reductions. We also find that higher-income travellers consume and pollute substantially more than the rest, and yet there is little difference in relative voluntary reductions across the income distribution. We conclude that behaviour associated with affluence represents a major barrier to a low-carbon transition, and that policies must address over-consumption associated with affluence as a priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent debates on environmental problems and policies, the strategy of “degrowth” has appeared as an alternative to the paradigm of economic growth. This new notion is critically evaluated by considering five common interpretations of it. One conclusion is that these multiple interpretations make it an ambiguous and rather confusing concept. Another is that degrowth may not be an effective, let alone an efficient strategy to reduce environmental pressure. It is subsequently argued that “a-growth,” i.e. being indifferent about growth, is a more logical social aim to substitute for the current goal of economic growth, given that GDP (per capita) is a very imperfect indicator of social welfare. In addition, focusing ex ante on public policy is considered to be a strategy which ultimately is more likely to obtain the necessary democratic–political support than an ex ante, explicit degrowth strategy. In line with this, a policy package is proposed which consists of six elements, some of which relate to concerns raised by degrowth supporters. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In today's world, any nation's ecological footprint is spread all over the globe. Still, most footprint studies are not yet sensitive to the specific locations on which the footprint falls and to the unique production characteristics of each supporting region. In recent years some studies have acknowledged the need to quantify the ‘real land’ footprints and particularly the share of the footprint embodied in trade. Our goal is to analyse the ecological footprint of grain-based consumption in the state of Israel during the last two decades. We present a detailed, place oriented calculation procedure of Israel's grain footprint on specific locations around the world. We document modes of production, major energy inputs in specific sources of supply, the energy required for shipping from each source, and the CO2 emissions from those operations. Our research reveals that most of Israel's grain footprint falls on North America followed by the Black Sea region. It also shows that while the overall consumption of grain products has increased throughout the research period, the size of the footprint has been dropping in recent years as a consequence of changing sources of supply and grain composition. Finally, we discuss some of the implications of the method presented here for future footprint calculations and environmental resource management. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Food consumption may account for upwards of 15% of U.S. per capita greenhouse gas emissions. Online carbon calculators can help consumers prioritize among dietary behaviors to minimize personal “carbon footprints,” leveraging against emissions-intensive industry practices. We reviewed the fitness of selected carbon calculators for measuring and communicating indirect GHG emissions from food consumption. Calculators were evaluated based on the scope of user behaviors accounted for, data sources, transparency of methods, consistency with prior data and effectiveness of communication. We found food consumption was under-represented (25%) among general environmental impact calculators (n =83). We identified eight carbon calculators that accounted for food consumption and included U.S. users among the target audience. Among these, meat and dairy consumption was appropriately highlighted as the primary diet-related contributor to emissions. Opportunities exist to improve upon these tools, including: expanding the scope of behaviors included under calculations; improving communication, in part by emphasizing the ecological and public health co-benefits of less emissions-intensive diets; and adopting more robust, transparent methodologies, particularly where calculators produce questionable emissions estimates. Further, all calculators could benefit from more comprehensive data on the U.S. food system. These advancements may better equip these tools for effectively guiding audiences toward ecologically responsible dietary choices. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Many conservationists contend that economic growth and biodiversity conservation are incompatible goals. Some economists contest this viewpoint, arguing that wealthier countries have the luxury of investing more heavily in efforts to conserve biodiversity. Under this assumption, we expect a U-shaped relationship between per capita wealth and proportion of species conserved. We test this environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) using estimates of per capita income and deforestation rates (index of biodiversity threat) for 35 tropical countries. A prior analysis [Dietz, S., Adger, W.N., 2003. Economic growth, biodiversity loss and conservation effort. Journal of Environmental Management, 68:23–35] using conventional regression techniques failed to provide any support for the parabolic relationship predicted by the EKC hypothesis. Here, we introduce the use of quantile regression and spatial filtering to reanalyze this data, addressing issues of heteroskedasticity and spatial autocorrelation. We note that preliminary analysis using these methods provides some initial evidence for an EKC. However, a series of panel analyses with country-specific dummy variables eliminated or even reversed much of this support. A closer examination of conservation practices and environmental indicators within the countries, particularly those countries that drove our initial support, suggests that wealth is not a reliable indicator of improved conservation practice. Our findings indicate that an EKC for biodiversity is overly simplistic and further exploration is required to fully understand the mechanisms by which income affects biodiversity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The water footprint concept introduced in 2002 is an analogue of the ecological footprint concept originating from the 1990s. Whereas the ecological footprint (EF) denotes the bioproductive area (hectares) needed to sustain a population, the water footprint (WF) represents the freshwater volume (cubic metres per year) required. In elaborating the WF concept into a well-defined quantifiable indicator, a number of methodological issues have been addressed, with many similarities to the methodological concerns in EF analysis. The methodology followed in WF studies is in most cases analogous to the methodology taken in EF studies, but deviates at some points. Well-reasoned it has been chosen for instance to specifically take into account the source and production circumstances of products and assess the actual water use involved, thus not taking global averages. As a result one can exactly localise the spatial distribution of a water footprint of a country. With respect to the outcome of the footprint estimates, one can see both similarities and striking differences. Food consumption for instance contributes significantly to both the EF and the WF, but mobility (and associated energy use) is very important only for the EF. From a sustainability perspective, the WF of a country tells another story and thus at times will put particular development strategies in a different perspective. The paper reviews and compares the methodologies in EF and WF studies, compares nation's footprint estimates and suggests how the two concepts can be interpreted in relation to one another. The key conclusion is that the two concepts are to be regarded as complementary in the sustainability debate. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper discusses the connection between environmental awareness and metering data on household consumption (electricity, heating, water), and it is based on recent Danish studies. It is discussed, how families'' understanding of environmental awareness and environmental practices relates to their overall household consumption. The paper indicates that residents'' environmental practices in everyday life are often overshadowed by consumption practices in other areas, and that such practices are often rooted in quite different rationales than environmental awareness. These findings are seen as an example of what Pierre Bourdieu calls the “economy of symbolic goods” (; 92), offering an explanation for why some symbolic actions apparently play a larger role than other, more environmentally serious consumption practices. From this, it is argued that the social structures underlying consumption and green behaviour should be recognised in the formulation of environmental policies, and that instead of using sustainable practices such as “environmental awareness” as a sales argument, more reflexive strategies that take consumers'' preferences into account should be considered. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Economic growth has brought prosperity for large parts of the growing world population. But it also expanded the use of nature's resources and absorption capacities to a critical extent. The transition to sustainability that policy making therefore tries to promote may, however, have adverse effects on the growth path. If so, how will consumer welfare be affected? How can policy interventions be legitimized if they cause welfare sacrifices? How will consumers as voters react in the political decision making process if such interventions are proposed? For answering these questions the present paper develops an extended explanation of consumption behavior and welfare related to work in the human sciences on the evolved foundations of human behavior. The approach allows a differentiated view on the driving forces and the welfare effects of consumption growth as well as legitimization and acceptance problems of different sustainability-promoting policy options. • Economic growth has brought prosperity but also expanded the use of nature's resources and absorption capacities to a critical extent • If the transition to sustainability has adverse effects on the growth path, how will consumer be affected in their welfare and how will they react to the expected effects as voters in the political decision making process? • For answering these questions the present paper develops an extended explanation of consumption and welfare related to work in the human sciences on the evolved foundations of human behavior. • The approach allows a differentiated view on the welfare effects of consumption growth (or a lack of it) and on the acceptance of sustainability-enhancing policy measures in the political decision making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recent research suggests that consumption-based measures offer an insightful perspective on the debate on the relationship between economic growth and the environment. In this article we deepen the consumption-based line of inquiry by investigating the empirical evidence in support of the environmental Kuznets hypothesis using 2001 ecological footprint data for 141 countries. We perform Ordinary Least Squares and Weighted Least Squares analysis on linear, quadratic and cubic functions, in standard and logarithmic specifications, as candidate models to represent the relationship between per capita income and environmental pressure. We replicate the cross country analysis also by estimating the regression function directly, through a nonparametric regression. In our analyses, with and without weighing data by population, the results do not show evidence of de-linking. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Habits of conservation, consumption and recycling are important determinants of economic throughput. Provincial governments interested in tourism''s role in a diverse, steady-state economy may wish to orient tourism development around the tourist segments with less intensive consumption habits. We estimate consumption of energy and materials by tourists vacationing in Val di Merse, a rural region of Tuscany, Italy. We compare tourists and their host population by means of a consumption based indicator, the Ecological Footprint. Conclusions for planning and management are explored. While the average tourist is often thought to consume more on vacation than at home, and often more than local residents, our estimate of the tourist footprint as an equivalent resident (5.28 gha) is similar to that estimated for residents (5.47 gha), excluding arrival transport. In total, the tourist population (685 equivalent residents) in Val di Merse contributes an ecological footprint of 13,500 gha annually, compared to 74,500 gha due to local residents (pop. 13,624). Both levels are lower than the average 6.74 EF estimated for the tourist countries of origin. Arrival transport contributes an additional 32.8 gha per tourist equivalent resident, and accounts for 86% of the total tourism impact. Infrastructure, information provided, and traditional knowledge are discussed as possible ways Provincial governments can maintain or grow tourism flows while maintaining low ecological footprint, and while raising economic turnover relative to material and energy throughput. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In search of viable ways to create more sustainable diets, it is extremely valuable to analyse how people in various countries are supplied with dietary proteins from plant-based and animal-based sources. As a cross-national comparison of food ingredients may easily lead to misleading interpretations, it is crucial to opt for a multidisciplinary approach and to focus on countries that are spread across a bounded geographical area. In the present paper, an overview of diet proteins in the EU-15 member states is presented. As it turns out, the diets are rather diverse but everywhere the same major sources can be distinguished, i.e., meat, cereals and milk. The analysis showed a strong influence of location on protein diets. There are significant differences between, on the one hand, countries with high supplies of protein provided by vegetables and cereals, and, on the other hand, countries with high supplies of protein derived from milk. In this respect, Portugal, Italy and Greece can be contrasted with The Netherlands, Sweden and Finland as the two poles of an axis, with intermediate positions for the other countries. A number of interrelated differences between these countries clearly demonstrated the impacts of ecological, economic and cultural factors on current dietary protein supply. Although it does not make sense to plea simply in favour of turning the clock back, we draw the conclusion that there is room for a diet that is less dependent on meat proteins without going beyond the limits set by nutrition and health. Our results suggest that the East Mediterranean diet of the early 1960s has interesting qualities for the development of options to create more sustainable, healthful diets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In The Coal Question William Stanley Jevons [Jevons, W.S., 1865/1965. The Coal Question: an Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of our Coal-mines. 3rd edition 1905, Ed. A.W. Flux. Augustus M. Kelley, New York.] maintained that technological efficiency gains—specifically the more “economical” use of coal in engines doing mechanical work—actually increased the overall consumption of coal, iron, and other resources, rather than “saving” them, as many claimed. Twentieth-century economic growth theory also sees technological change as the main cause of increased production and consumption. In contrast, some ecologically-oriented economists and practically all governments, green political parties and NGOs believe that efficiency gains lower consumption and negative environmental impact. Others doubt this ‘efficiency strategy’ towards sustainability, holding that efficiency gains ‘rebound’ or even ‘backfire’ in pursuing this goal, causing higher production and consumption. Because many environmental problems demand rapid and clear policy recommendations, this issue deserves high priority in ecological economics. If Jevons is right, efficiency policies are counter-productive, and business-as-usual efficiency gains must be compensated for with physical caps like quotas or rationing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Films are an underutilized media to explore and amplify the many messages of ecological economics. While a few popular films and videos have effectively addressed environmental themes, this commentary argues that they have an even greater role to play in the educational process in order to reach a broader audience and help it to rethink its role in the world''s ecosystems. Hayao Miyazaki, the masterful animator from Japan, is singled out to offer ample material in many of his popular and children''s films to stimulate such critical thinking on the systemic problems addressed by ecological economics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Cost–benefit analysis (CBA) is often used in policy decisions to determine the economic value of various choices. Although the effects of income disparity are well accepted, one of the reasons for the success of this type of analysis is that many policy-makers and analysts consider the results of a well-crafted analysis to be largely free of partisan or political bias. Here I propose that tradeoffs between the benefits of various possible jobs or careers introduce a significant bias into values imputed based upon willingness to pay (WTP) measures. In particular, I demonstrate why we might expect the values of various segments of society to be differentially appreciated by CBA. Empirical evidence is presented, indicating that there is a significant negative correlation between the importance an individual places on income and the willingness of that individual to forgo consumption in favor of environmental improvement, as well as a correlation between the importance of income and actual income. These results suggest that CBA as a tool of welfare economics is likely to be biased against environmental protection because concerned individuals are likely to choose careers which do not maximize consumption, thus decreasing their ability to pay for both real and hypothetical environmental improvements. Moreover, the size of this bias appears to be large. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Food consumption is one of the most polluting everyday activities when impacts during product life cycles are considered. Greenhouse gas emissions from the food sector are substantial and need to be lowered to stabilise climate change. Here, we present an inventory of life cycle energy inputs for 150 food items available in Sweden and discuss how energy efficient meals and diets can be composed. Energy inputs in food life cycles vary from 2 to 220 MJ per kg due to a multitude of factors related to animal or vegetable origin, degree of processing, choice of processing and preparation technology and transportation distance. Daily total life cycle energy inputs for diets with a similar dietary energy consumed by one person can vary by a factor of four, from 13 to 51 MJ. Current Swedish food consumption patterns result in life cycle energy inputs ranging from 6900 to 21,000 MJ per person and year. Choice of ingredients and gender differences in food consumption patterns explain the differences. Up to a third of the total energy inputs is related to snacks, sweets and drinks, items with little nutritional value. It is possible to compose a diet compatible with goals for energy efficiency and equal global partition of energy resources. However, such a diet is far from the Swedish average and not in line with current trends. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Postmodern explanations of consumer behaviour stress social and psychological factors to the neglect of explanations based on structural issues such as the working life conditions which favour a work-and-spend lifestyle, the conditions of urban living or the effects of pervasive marketing. This paper argues that consumers may not be so keen and willing but are rather locked-in by circumstances. Some of these circumstances are deliberately created by other interests, and a policy to limit consumption must look for adequate means over a large and varied field. In the end shorter working hours may be an important key to a more sustainable future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper makes the case that if ecological economics seeks ‘consilience’ with biology it must acquaint itself with evolutionary theories about social development and human behaviour. The author reviews some of the literature in this area. Particular attention is paid to the newly emerging discipline of evolutionary psychology, which sets out a neo-Darwinian view of human nature in which individual and social behaviour is dominated by the evolutionary strategies of the ‘selfish gene’. The paper discusses the relevance of this perspective for two specific ‘problem areas’ in ecological economics. The first of these is the question of consumption and consumer behaviour. The second is the problem of ‘mismatch’ between the pursuit of economic growth and social well-being or contentment. These examples illustrate that evolutionary psychology may sometimes provide a natural ally for ecological economics, in particular pointing up certain failures of conventional economics. On the other hand, it also offers harsh lessons concerning the difficulty of changing evolved behaviour patterns. The paper suggests three possible avenues of response by ecological economists to the insights of evolutionary psychology. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The ecological requirements to drastically increase the productivity of materials use call for improvements in the efficiency of consumption. This (eco-)efficiency discussion often takes a functional view on consumption, noting that present consumption is inefficient and that it is not the products that the consumers want, but the services that the products yield. However, contemporary consumption serves many needs that are not functional and universal, but subjective and obscured from the producers. This paper develops a time use approach towards consumption, which makes allowance for the subjectivity of needs, while still enabling the analysts to approach the concept of a sustainable lifestyle. A distinctive premise of the analysis is that it assumes time and money not to be interchangeable and consumption to be limited by available consumption time instead of purchasing power. This approach is demonstrated by linking the direct and the indirect energy use of Finnish two-person households to the data of a national time use survey. The results are used to point out some of the potential time use rebound effects of such new eco-efficient services that transfer activities from private households to the market actors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Researchers generally express the local value of tropical rain forests in dollars/ha/year. The approach is problematic because it produces low values to local users, underestimating the importance of the forest expressed as a share of household consumption or earnings. Here we contribute to valuation studies of rain forests by estimating the financial importance of the forest measured in three ways: (1) the contribution of forests to annual household consumption and (2) earnings; and (3) the value of a hectare of rain forest to villagers measured through the biological goods consumed and sold. We collected panel data on consumption and earnings from 81 households in four villages of two Amerindian societies in two nations (Tsimane’, Bolivia; Tawahka, Honduras). Analyses suggest: (1) forests account for a large share of household consumption (median ∼38.5%; range 14.65–53.11%); (2) forests contribute more to household consumption than to household earnings (median ∼22.69%; range 16.56–44.81%); (3) the relative contribution of forests to household consumption and earnings falls among villages closer to towns; and (4) the range of values/year of rain forest/ha is US$7.10–9.70 using 1999 dollars or US$18.46–46.56 using purchasing power parity indexes, below previous estimates. Results show much variation in forest values; valuation methods and stakeholder perspectives affect the variation. Given the variation, a useful strategy to promote forest conservation would transfer income to villagers to compensate them for non-local forest values. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]