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This book uses the metaphor “The economy is society's
metabolism” as a springboard to develop a rigorous theoretical
framework for a better system of national accounts which goes
“Beyond GDP” and is relevant to the age of resource depletion.
Society is entering a new era in which biophysical limits related
to natural resource extraction rates and the biosphere's waste
assimilation capacity are becoming binding constraints on mature
economies. Unfortunately, the data needed for policy-makers to
understand and manage economic growth in this new era are not
universally available. All stakeholders need a new way to
understand our economy in the context of the biosphere’s ability
to provide essential natural capital, and we suggest that detailed
information about materials, energy, embodied energy, and energy
intensity should be routinely gathered, analyzed, and disseminated
from a centralized location to provide markets and policymakers
with a more comprehensive understanding of the biophysical economy.
However, a firm theoretical foundation is needed before proceeding
along this new path, which this book is intended to provide. After
arguing that the stock of manufactured capital is an important
driver of material and energy demands imposed upon the biosphere, a
new accounting framework is derived from the laws of thermodynamics
to reflect the fact that material and embodied energy accumulate
within the capital stock of economic sectors. This framework
extends the Energy Input-Output (EI-O) techniques first developed
by Bullard, Herendeen, and others to estimate energy intensity of
economic products. Implications from the new framework are
discussed, including the value of economic metrics for
policy-making, the need for physically-based rather than
product-based EI-O formulations, a re-assessment of the concept of
economic “growth,” and an evaluation of recycling, reuse, and
dematerialization. The framework also provides an opportunity to
assess an array of definitions for Daly's “steady-state
economy” in relation to the ideal of a sustainable economy. The
book ends with a list of steps to be taken in creating a more
comprehensive system of national accounts: National accounting
agencies worldwide should develop and maintain balance sheets of
both natural and manufactured capital in addition to national
income statements All stocks and inter-sector flows should be
provided in physical as well as financial units In the US, the
Bureau for Economic Analysis (BEA) should restart detailed Capital,
Labor, Energy, Material, and Services (KLEMS) reporting National
accounting agencies should routinely estimate the energy intensity
of economic products, and all of the above should be estimated and
disseminated on an annual basis.
This book uses the metaphor "The economy is society's metabolism"
as a springboard to develop a rigorous theoretical framework for a
better system of national accounts which goes "Beyond GDP" and is
relevant to the age of resource depletion. Society is entering a
new era in which biophysical limits related to natural resource
extraction rates and the biosphere's waste assimilation capacity
are becoming binding constraints on mature economies.
Unfortunately, the data needed for policy-makers to understand and
manage economic growth in this new era are not universally
available. All stakeholders need a new way to understand our
economy in the context of the biosphere's ability to provide
essential natural capital, and we suggest that detailed information
about materials, energy, embodied energy, and energy intensity
should be routinely gathered, analyzed, and disseminated from a
centralized location to provide markets and policymakers with a
more comprehensive understanding of the biophysical economy.
However, a firm theoretical foundation is needed before proceeding
along this new path, which this book is intended to provide. After
arguing that the stock of manufactured capital is an important
driver of material and energy demands imposed upon the biosphere, a
new accounting framework is derived from the laws of thermodynamics
to reflect the fact that material and embodied energy accumulate
within the capital stock of economic sectors. This framework
extends the Energy Input-Output (EI-O) techniques first developed
by Bullard, Herendeen, and others to estimate energy intensity of
economic products. Implications from the new framework are
discussed, including the value of economic metrics for
policy-making, the need for physically-based rather than
product-based EI-O formulations, a re-assessment of the concept of
economic "growth," and an evaluation of recycling, reuse, and
dematerialization. The framework also provides an opportunity to
assess an array of definitions for Daly's "steady-state economy" in
relation to the ideal of a sustainable economy. The book ends with
a list of steps to be taken in creating a more comprehensive system
of national accounts: National accounting agencies worldwide should
develop and maintain balance sheets of both natural and
manufactured capital in addition to national income statements All
stocks and inter-sector flows should be provided in physical as
well as financial units In the US, the Bureau for Economic Analysis
(BEA) should restart detailed Capital, Labor, Energy, Material, and
Services (KLEMS) reporting National accounting agencies should
routinely estimate the energy intensity of economic products, and
all of the above should be estimated and disseminated on an annual
basis.
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