THUNDER · Through Understanding of Socioeconomic Metabolism towards Sustainability

The aim of this research project is to identify the link between environmental problems and their drivers. While production activities are responsible for most of the environmental impacts, they are ultimately driven by the final consumption of goods and services. This project will focus on further development of footprint indicators (indicators which assign environmental burden from the whole production chain to final consumers) by their integration into environmentally extended multiregional input-output analysis. Some indicators, such as human appropriation of net primary production, will be calculated from the consumer responsibility perspective for the first time and others, such as nitrogen footprint, will be for the first time integrated into a multi-regional input-output framework. A consolidated set of footprint indicators will be established for the most important environmental problems identified by other researchers. It will provide policy makers with evidence regarding environmental burdens abroad induced by domestic consumption. The set of footprint indicators will help them to measure progress in environmental areas and set up policy goals. A set of footprint indicators is necessary in order to avoid shifting environmental burden from one region to another and across environmental areas. This interdisciplinary project bridges economics and natural sciences and utilizes knowledge from both.