A new publication by Hanspeter Wieland and colleagues from the group Global Resource Use investigated the conceptual and empirical implications of different approaches to integrating environmental data in monetary input-output (IO) models. The analysis revealed considerable differences in environmental footprint results, which can vary by several orders of magnitude. The observed variations are relevant for monitoring of energy efficiency and emission reduction targets and corporate sustainability accounting. The authors furthermore discuss the influence of implicit modelling assumptions and the IO practitioner’s pre-analytic views on the modelling outcome. The present work therefore calls for more rigor in communicating and disclosing the design of environmental IO models to allow for more meaningful interpretations of results, greater transparency and better reproducibility of results.

Link to the publication: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jiec.12975?af=R