title: The material footprint of nations.
abstract: Metrics on resource productivity currently used by governments suggest that some developed countries have increased the use of natural resources at a slower rate than economic growth (relative decoupling) or have even managed to use fewer resources over time (absolute decoupling). Using the material footprint (MF), a consumption-based indicator of resource use, we find the contrary: Achievements in decoupling in advanced economies are smaller than reported or even nonexistent. We present a time series analysis of the MF of 186 countries and identify material flows associated with global production and consumption networks in unprecedented specificity. By calculating raw material equivalents of international trade, we demonstrate that countries' use of nondomestic resources is, on average, about threefold larger than the physical quantity of traded goods. As wealth grows, countries tend to reduce their domestic portion of materials extraction through international trade, whereas the overall mass of material consumption generally increases. With every 10% increase in gross domestic product, the average national MF increases by 6%. Our findings call into question the sole use of current resource productivity indicators in policy making and suggest the necessity of an additional focus on consumption-based accounting for natural resource use.
authors.affiliation: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Ecosystem Sciences, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; Integrated Sustainability Analysis (ISA), School of Physics A28, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; t.wiedmann@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: Thomas O
authors.initials: TO
authors.lastname: Wiedmann
authors.affiliation: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Ecosystem Sciences, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; Australian National University, School of Sociology, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia;
authors.forename: Heinz
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schandl
authors.affiliation: Integrated Sustainability Analysis (ISA), School of Physics A28, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia;
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lenzen
authors.affiliation: Integrated Sustainability Analysis (ISA), School of Physics A28, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; Programme for Industrial Ecology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 7013 Trondheim, Norway;
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Moran
authors.affiliation: Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5131; and.
authors.forename: Sangwon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.affiliation: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Ecosystem Sciences, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia;
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: West
authors.affiliation: Integrated Sustainability Analysis (ISA), School of Physics A28, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8579, Japan.
authors.forename: Keiichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kanemoto
keywords: multiregion input–output analysis; raw material consumption; sustainable resource management