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journal article Oct 17, 2017

Material Flow Accounting: Measuring Global Material Use for Sustainable Development

Fridolin Krausmann ORCID Heinz Schandl ORCID Nina Eisenmenger ORCID Stefan Giljum ORCID Tim Jackson
Annual Review of Environment and Resources Vol. 42 No. 1 pp. 647-675 · Annual Reviews
View at Publisher Save 10.1146/annurev-environ-102016-060726
Abstract
The growing extraction of natural resources and the waste and emissions resulting from their use are directly or indirectly responsible for humanity approaching or even surpassing critical planetary boundaries. A sound knowledge base of society's metabolism, i.e., the physical exchange processes between society and its natural environment and the production and consumption processes involved, is essential to develop strategies for more sustainable resource use. Economy-wide material flow accounting (MFA) is a framework that provides consistent compilations of the material inputs to national economies, changes in material stocks within the economic system, and material outputs to other economies and the environment. We present the conceptual foundations of MFA and derived indicators and review the current state of knowledge of global patterns and trends of extraction, trade, and use of materials. We discuss the relation of material use and economic development and the decoupling of material use from economic growth in the context of sustainable resource use policies.
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Metrics
153
Citations
175
References
Details
Published
Oct 17, 2017
Vol/Issue
42(1)
Pages
647-675
Authors
F
Fridolin Krausmann

Institute of Social Ecology Vienna, Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies, Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt, 1070 Vienna, Austria;

H
Heinz Schandl

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Black Mountain Laboratories, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia; Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia

N
Nina Eisenmenger

Institute of Social Ecology Vienna, Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies, Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt, 1070 Vienna, Austria;

S
Stefan Giljum

Institute for Ecological Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business, 1020 Vienna, Austria

T
Tim Jackson

University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, United Kingdom

Cite This Article
Fridolin Krausmann, Heinz Schandl, Nina Eisenmenger, et al. (2017). Material Flow Accounting: Measuring Global Material Use for Sustainable Development. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 42(1), 647-675. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-102016-060726
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