In the context of the transformation toward a "green economy," issues related to natural resource use have rapidly increased in importance in European and international policy debates. The large number of studies applying economy-wide material flow analysis so far mostly produced aggregated...

This paper compares two different types of carbon accounting methods – measuring all emissions resulting from domestic production (the dominant method on which international carbon reduction targets are based) versus measuring the carbon emissions embodied in goods in the country where they...

A rapidly growing share of global agricultural areas is devoted to the production of biomass for non-food purposes. The derived products include, for example, biofuels, textiles, detergents or cosmetics. Given the far-reaching global implications of an expanding non-food bioeconomy, an...

The inefficient resource use at a time of growing demand is leading to increasing environmental pressure and resources scarcity that will affect Europe and other parts of the world over the next years and decades. Prices for global commodities like oil, raw materials and wheat have been...

In the 1990s, a new ownership form called ‘joint-stock co-operative’ (gufen hezuozhi) became widely adopted in China’s township and village enterprise sector. The promising dynamics and high adaptive ability of the new ownership form is in contradiction with the conclusions suggested by...

Energy subsidies are causing adverse effects on the economy and environment stimulating inefficient resource allocation and excessive energy consumption. Therefore, multiple positive effects are likely to be obtained if subsidies are reduced or removed completely. This study estimates indirect...

The employment impacts of the transition to a post-carbon economy are gaining increasing attention. The post-carbon transition implies fundamental changes in the economy followed by significant changes in the structure of labour demand. Industries with the highest carbon footprint are of utmost...

The global policy debate on just transitions is concerned with how to achieve a socially just and acceptable transition toward a climate-neutral and climate-resilient global economy. At the core of this debate is the assumption that efforts to combat environmental threats will not succeed unless...

Energy subsidies have been criticized due to their economic inefficiency and promotion of wasteful usage of energy and associated carbon emissions. Conversely, environmental taxes are advocated as efficient policy instruments. Nonetheless, removing subsidies and taxing energy can be politically...