trends and future of sustainable development - TransEco

TRENDS OF FINNISH MFA AND FUTURE PROSPECTSJukka HoffrénStatistics Finland, Helsinki, Finlandjukka.hoffren@stat.fi1. IntroductionThe economy-wide MFA provides systematic overview to a national economy by tracking all physicalinteractions between environment and economy by accounting all the human-caused physical input andoutput flows of an economic system. Economy-wide MFA systematically describe and monitor theindustrial metabolism of national economies in a consistent manner. MFA also complements the Systemof National Accounts (SNA). The basic premise of MFA-based analysis is that the amount of resourceflow inputs into the economy determines the amount of all outputs to the environment, including wastesand emissions. Thus, a reduction in resource inputs will reduce the outputs including emissions andwaste. This lowers pressure on the environment.Beside useful commodities, economic activities create residuals (pollution and waste) that areusually harmful to human beings and to the nature. After the useful days of commodities are over, theyare discarded to nature (waste and pollution). As time lapse all produced commodities end up to natureas waste and pollution. Thus ecological impacts of human activities can be expressed by material flowsthat comprise, among other things, energy carriers, minerals, fuels, sand and gravel, soil, water, air andoverburdening. In principle, all masses moved by technical means cause some environmental impactsand they should be taken into account. The first law of thermodynamics, i.e. the principle that theamount of material and energy remains constant at any flow or process in a system, says that the inputand output of a process must be equal. To the extent that environmental impacts are the consequence ofthe magnitude of total material input into production in an economy, they can be lessened by reducingthe intensity of materials use.MFAs are means by which the stocks and appropriate flows of natural resources can be combinedinto a single overall picture describing their interaction (see figure 1). Thus the economy takes in rawmaterials - from the domestic environment and via imports from foreign countries - for furtherprocessing, manufacturing, production and consumption. Some materials, such as constructionminerals, are stored in buildings and infrastructures for many years. At the end of their useful life,products become waste and may be recycled or finally disposed of in landfills or incineration plants.Hence, the size of the resource input also determines the amounts of subsequent waste and emissions.However there are differences between material flows according to whether they emerge and can be seenas direct flows e.g. wood resources or iron ore taken into production or wastes of economy or as hidden77