Conclusions

The consumption-based approach provides a framework that allows modeling demographic changes as well as changes in consumption patterns and lifestyles, technological advances and policies, and their effects on the economy, society and the environment. The environmentally extended multi-region input-output model is a standard tool to account for carbon emissions of local decisions along global supply chains. This allows us to calculate the implications of local production and consumption decisions within a geographic locale or for a specific entity as well as considering associated upstream emissions. Environmental footprinting has made considerable progress over the last two decades in analyzing environmental pressures from consumption activities that arise throughout the global supply chain. However, there are still a number of interesting challenges and hurdles but also encouraging developments on the way. While these are all very exciting new venues, they are still often lacking comparability and an analytic framework for evaluating the environmental, social, and economic trade-offs associated with choices. While multi-regional input-output analysis or structural economics provides such a framework, its full potential has not been harnessed.