Sustainability of national consumption from a water resources perspective: The case study for France

It has become increasingly evident that local water depletion and pollution are often closely tied to the structure of the global economy. It has been estimated that 20% of the water consumption and pollution in the world relates to the production of export goods. This study analyzes how French water resources are allocated over various purposes, and examines impacts of French production in local water resources. In addition, it analyzes the water dependency of French consumption and the sustainability of imports. The basins of the Loire, Seine, Garonne, and Escaut have been identified as priority basins where maize and industrial production are the dominant factors for the blue water scarcity. About 47% of the water footprint of French consumption is related to imported agricultural products. Cotton, sugar cane and rice are the three major crops that are identified as critical products in a number of severely water-scarce river basins: The basins of the Aral Sea and the Indus, Ganges, Guadalquivir, Guadiana, Tigris & Euphrates, Ebro, Mississippi and Murray rivers. The study shows that the analysis of the external water footprint of a nation is necessary to get a complete picture of the relation between national consumption and the use of water resources.     

The water footprints of Morocco and the Netherlands: Global water use as a result of domestic consumption of agricultural commodities

The volume of international trade in agricultural commodities is increasing faster than the global volume of production, which is an indicator of growing international dependencies in the area of food supply. Although less obvious, it also implies growing international dependencies in the field of water supply. By importing food, countries also import water in virtual form. The aim of the paper is to assess the water footprints of Morocco, a semi-arid/arid country, and the Netherlands, a humid country. The water footprint of a country is defined as the volume of water used for the production of the goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the country. The internal water footprint is the volume of water used from domestic water resources; the external water footprint is the volume of water used in other countries to produce goods and services imported and consumed by the inhabitants of the country. The study shows that both Morocco and the Netherlands import more water in virtual form (in the form of water-intensive agricultural commodities) than they export, which makes them dependent on water resources elsewhere in the world. The water footprint calculations show that Morocco depends for 14% on water resources outside its own borders, while the Netherlands depend on foreign water resources for 95%. It is shown that international trade can result in global water saving when a water-intensive commodity is traded from an area where it is produced with high water productivity to an area with lower water productivity. If Morocco had to domestically produce the products that are now imported from the Netherlands, it would require 780 million m³/year. However, the imported products from the Netherlands were actually produced with only 140 million m³/year, which implies a global water saving of 640 million m³/year.     

The water footprint of coffee and tea consumption in the Netherlands

A cup of coffee or tea in our hand means manifold consumption of water at the production location. The objective of this study is to assess the global water footprint of the Dutch society in relation to its coffee and tea consumption. The calculation is carried out based on the crop water requirements in the major coffee and tea exporting countries and the water requirements in the subsequent processing steps. In total, the world population requires about 140 billion cubic metres of water per year in order to be able to drink coffee and tea. The standard cup of coffee and tea in the Netherlands costs about 140 l and 34 l of water respectively. The largest portions of these volumes are attributable to growing the plants. The Dutch people account for 2.4% of the world coffee consumption. The total water footprint of Dutch coffee and tea consumption amounts to 2.7 billion cubic metres of water per year (37% of the annual Meuse runoff). The water needed to drink coffee or tea in the Netherlands is not Dutch water. The most important sources for the Dutch coffee are Brazil and Colombia and for the Dutch tea Indonesia, China and Sri Lanka. The major volume of water to grow the coffee plant comes from rainwater. For the overall water need in coffee production, it makes hardly any difference whether the dry or wet production process is applied, because the water used in the wet production process is a very small fraction (0.34%) of the water used to grow the coffee plant. However, the impact of this relatively small amount of water is often significant. First, it is blue water (abstracted from surface and ground water), which is sometimes scarcely available. Second, the wastewater generated in the wet production process is often heavily polluted.     

A dynamic analysis of water footprint of Jinghe River basin

Water footprint in a region is defined as the volume of water needed for the production of goods and services consumed by the local people, Ecosystem services are a kind of important services, so ecological water use is one necessary component in water footprint. Water footprint is divided into green water footprint and blue water footprint but the former one is often ignored.In this paper waterJootprint includes blue water needed by agricultural irrigation, industrial and domestic water demand, and green water needed by crops, economic forests, livestock prochtcts, forestlalands and grasslands. The study calculates the footprint of the Jinghe River basin in 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2005 with quarto methods. Results of research show that water footprints reached 164.1 ×10^8m3, 175. 69 ×10^8m3 and 178. 45 ×10^8m3 respectively in 1990, 1995 and 2000 including that of ecological water use, but reached 77.68×10^8m3, 94.24×10^8m3, 92.92×10^8m3 and 111.36 ×10^8m3 respectively excluding that of ecological water use. Green water.footprint is much more than blue water footprint; thereby, green water plays an important role in economic development and ecological construction The dynamic change of water footprints shows that blue water use increases rapidly and that the ecological water use is occupied by economie and domestic water use. The change also shows that water use is transferred from primary industry to secondary industry In primary industry, it is transferred from crops farming to forestry, and animal agriculture. The factors impelling the change include development anticipation on econonomy; government policies, readjustment of the industrial structure, population growth, the raise of urbanization level, and structurul change of consumption, low level of waler-saving and poor ability of waste water treatment.With blue water use per unit, green water use per unit, blue water use structure and green water use structure, we analyzed the difference of the six ecologieal function districts of the Jinghe River     

Tracing distant environmental impacts of agricultural products from a consumer perspective

Globally, trade flows of agricultural products are increasing. While value is typically added along the whole production chain, certain environmental impacts, such as land and water use, biomass appropriation, and soil degradation, are intrinsically linked to where the primary products originate from. When taking a consumer oriented approach on environmental problems, bilateral trade statistics can help in providing a clearer picture about the location of impacts caused by consumption elsewhere. However, in today's increasingly globalized world, consumer goods are often imported from countries other than where the primary product originated from. For instance, soybeans are transported from Brazil to the Netherlands, where they are processed into soy oil, which is shipped to Austria, where it is consumed. Utilizing bilateral trade matrices and matrix algebra, we present a method that allows to clearly link consumption patterns to the origin of primary products. In this, the method can help to provide information about consumption related, distant environmental impacts. We employ the case of land and water use linked to Austria's soy product consumption to demonstrate the approach's relevance. Finally, we outline some possible applications of this method to show its potential in enhancing understanding for informed consumer based environmental decision making.     

The effects on agriculture in the United States of an oil import fee

This paper focuses on the effect that a crude oil import fee would have on the various producing sectors, consuming sectors and household categories in the United States where the interrelationships between these entities is explicitly considered. Special attention is given to the agricultural sectors of the economy. Thus, in the context of a general equilibrium model, the effect of a $5.00 per barrel import fee on the producing sectors in general and the three agricultural sectors plus forestry in particular, on the consuming sectors, on households and on the government is calculated. Over the period 1984–90 with such an import fee (relative to the absence of a crude–oil import fee), the model results suggest that there will be a reduction in output by all producing sectors (except the crude-oil industry) by about $13,924 billion, there will be a fall in the consumption of goods and services by about $318 million and there will be a decline in aggregate social welfare (measured as utility) by about $208 mill ion. The government will realize an increase in revenue of about $3,622 billion. The agricultural sectors in the aggregate can expect to see a fall in output of $769 million with an attendant increase in the price of its goods as a consequence of the oil import fee.     

大豆需求与全球资源的优化配置

供求决定价格,价格又反过来影响供求平衡.一方面,中国对大豆的进口需求是导致国际价格不断上涨的主要原因;另一方面,中国水产品出口价格的下降又刺激了美、日、韩等国对我国大虾消费的需求.大豆豆粕是大虾饲料的主要成分,欧美水产品的消费间接拉动了我国大豆的进口.除此,由于大豆属土地密集型农产品,利润率较低,在耕地资源短缺的条件下,我国应该生产那些劳动力密集、单位产量较高的农作物或收益较好的经济作物,进口土地密集型农作物.因此.进口大豆,出口大虾,符合全球资源的优化配置原则.     

The case of Brazil: Import substitution revisited

This paper argues that Brazil has responded to the energy crisis by reverting to policies of autarky through import substitution. Nuclear power, alcohol, and (if possible) domestic oil are to be substituted for oil imports. To manage the balance of payments with fixed exchange rates, domestic production will be substituted for imports, even of those goods (e.g., raw materials, capital goods, and high-technology products) that until now have been mostly imported. The growing integration of 1968–1974 into the world economy appears to have been a temporary aberration.     

Analyses of water footprint of Beijing in an interregional input-output framework

Beijing is under severe water resource pressure due to the rapid economic development and growing population. This study quantitatively evaluates the water footprint of Beijing in an interregional input-output framework with a focus on blue water resources and uses. The inter-connections of water resources between Beijing and other provinces are analyzed with a sectoral specification. The results show that the total water footprint of Beijing is 4498.4 10⁶ m³/year, of which 51% is from the external water footprint acquired through virtual water import. Agriculture has the highest water footprint of 1524.5 10⁶ m³/year with 56% coming from external sources. The main virtual water provider for Beijing is Hebei, another water scarce region, from which Beijing receives virtual water of 373.3 10⁶ m³/year with 40% from agriculture. The results of this study suggest that the interregional trade coordination, especially for the main sectors with high water use intensity, is important for enhancing the efficiency of regional and national water resource utilization.     

Ecological footprint accounting in the life cycle assessment of products

We present and discuss ecological footprint (EF) calculations for a large number of products and services consumed in the western economy. Product-specific EFs were calculated from consistent and quality-controlled life cycle information of 2630 products and services, including energy, materials, transport, waste treatment and infrastructural processes. We formed 19 homogeneous product/process subgroups for further analysis, containing in total 1549 processes. Per group, the average contribution of two types of land occupation (direct and energy related) to the total EF was derived. It was found that the ecological footprint of the majority of products is dominated by the consumption of non-renewable energy. Notable exceptions are the EFs of biomass energy, hydro energy, paper and cardboard, and agricultural products with a relatively high contribution of direct land occupation. We also compared the ecological footprint results with the results of a commonly used life cycle impact assessment method, the Ecoindicator 99 (EI). It was found that the majority of the products have an EF/EI ratio of around 30 m²-eq. yr/ecopoint ± a factor of 5. The typical ratio reduces to 25 m² yr/ecopoints by excluding the arbitrary EF for nuclear energy demand. The relatively small variation of this ratio implies that the use of land and use of fossil fuels are important drivers of overall environmental impact. Ecological footprints may therefore serve as a screening indicator for environmental performance. However, our results also show that the usefulness of EF as a stand-alone indicator for environmental impact is limited for product life cycles with relative high mineral consumption and process-specific metal and dust emissions. For these products the EF/EI ratio can substantially deviate from the average value. Finally, we suggest that the ecological footprint product data provided in this paper can be used to improve the footprint estimates of production, import and export of products on a national scale and footprint estimates of various lifestyles.     

International trade of scarce water

Recent analyses of the evolution and structure of trade in virtual water revealed that the number of trade connections and volume of virtual water trade have more than doubled over the past two decades, and that developed countries increasingly import water embodied in goods from the rest of the world to alleviate pressure on domestic water resources. At the same time, as demand continues to increase and climate change threatens to alter hydrological cycles, water scarcity is a growing problem. Does research into virtual water trade need to consider water scarcity and differentiate flows out of water-scarce regions from flows out of water-abundant regions? Previous studies sum and compare virtual water volumes originating in countries experiencing vastly different degrees of water scarcity. We therefore incorporate water scarcity into an assessment of global virtual water flows. We use input–output analysis to include indirect virtual water flows. We find that the structure of global virtual water networks changes significantly after adjusting for water scarcity.     

Analysis of changes in Dutch emission trade balance(s) between 1996 and 2007

In this paper we construct bilateral emission trade balances (ETB) for The Netherlands with 17 regions and compare results for 1996 and 2007 for three different greenhouse gasses. We establish a cross-sectional analysis of bilateral ETBs into a volume of trade, composition and technology effect. In order to analyze the driving forces of changes over time we perform a structural decomposition analysis of embodied import and export emissions. The main findings are that the embodied import emissions have increased by 37% whereas export emissions increased by only 3%, which is primarily driven by CO₂. The 2007 bilateral balances are positive with OECD countries but negative with economies such as Russia, Africa and China. The analyses demonstrate that the worsening of the ETB is to a large extent caused by the changing composition of trade: the Dutch economy increasingly exports clean products and imports dirty products.     

Imported technologies,urban unemployment and the North-South dialogue

This paper extends the Harris-Todaro model with intersectoral capital mobility to include sector specific imported technologies. Technologies are assumed to be embodied in imported capital goods. The small economy in the South, for which the model is defined, can import any amount of these technologies from the North at given royalty rates. We find that if the North agrees to reduce the royalty rate on the industrial technology, both the level and the rate of urban unemployment would rise and the income distribution change against the wage earners, whereas such a reduction for the agricultural technology would have just the opposite effects. A decrease in either royalty rate would increase the national income in the South, although the magnitude of the increase in income would be larger with reduced royalty rate for agricultural rather than industrial technology. The policy implication is that the South should emphasize the import of agricultural technology over the industrial technology.     

Migration,trade and spillover effects

This paper identifies a new channel through which migrants can affect the import demand of goods in the host country. In migrating from origin to destination country, migrants observe a change in the price of the bundle of consumable goods. In particular, the migration decision can imply a reduction in the price of imported goods for the consumption bundle of migrants: emigration towards less (tariff) protected countries allows the consumption of products that were prohibitively protected in the origin countries of migrants. To test this channel we estimate the import demand effect of migrant groups coming from third high (tariff) protected countries. Our empirical results strongly confirm this channel and suggest a new perspective about how migration can affect welfare and trade in destination countries.     

"四流"协同理念在新型农产品流通模式打造中的体现

运用商流、物流、资金流、信息流"四流"协同理念打造新型农产品流通模式,对于提高农产品物流效率,推进现代农业发展,促进农民增收,解决经济过剩条件下的需求不畅问题,实现国民经济的快速与持续增长,促进社会主义新农村建设具有重要作用与战略价值.     

浙江工业产品贸易的“污染足迹”研究

改革开放以来,浙江省的贸易保持着快速的增长。工业产品作为浙江省对外贸易的绝对主体,每年巨大的贸易顺差,必然给浙江省带来很大的污染成本。文章从＂污染足迹＂的概念出发,利用浙江省各工业部门的对外贸易量及污染物的排放数据进行定量分析,核算出浙江省具有代表性的产业部门的产污系数,进出口污染系数及部门来源。结果表明：浙江省工业产品的对外贸易虽然向海外转移了污染物,但是总体来说,巨大的贸易逆差在浙江省留下了污染足迹核算和分析的结果表明,从1997年到2006年,浙江工业产品出口正慢慢偏向于低污染行业,进口偏向于污染密集型行业;浙江省工业产品出口带来的废水的增长速度最快,而废气和固体废弃物呈缓慢增长趋势;化学工业的进口转移了最多的污染物,而金属采选业的进口转移了最多的固体废气物。     

Measuring the Technological Structure of Chinese Imports

This paper uses the optimal partitioning method of clustering analysis using orderly samples to classify trade goods and analyzes the technological structure of Chinese imports. The results indicate that since 2000, medium–high technology products have made up the majority of China's imported goods, while the shares of medium or higher technology products have decreased and the share of medium–low technology products has increased sharply. The number of imported goods with a comparative advantage in the Chinese market decreased, while the overall comparative advantage of imported goods also declined. China imports different types of products from different countries and regions around the world. The findings suggest that China should increase the import scale of high technology products.     

The blue, green and grey water footprint of rice from production and consumption perspectives

The paper makes a global assessment of the green, blue and grey water footprint of rice, using a higher spatial resolution and local data on actual irrigation. The national water footprint of rice production and consumption is estimated using international trade and domestic production data. The global water footprint of rice production is 784 km³/year with an average of 1325 m³/t which is 48% green, 44% blue, and 8% grey. There is also 1025 m³/t of percolation in rice production. The ratio of green to blue water varies greatly over time and space. In India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines, the green water fraction is substantially larger than the blue one, whereas in the USA and Pakistan the blue water footprint is 4 times more than the green component. The virtual water flows related to international rice trade was 31 km³/year. The consumption of rice products in the EU27 is responsible for the annual evaporation of 2279 Mm³ of water and polluted return flows of 178 Mm³ around the globe, mainly in India, Thailand, the USA and Pakistan. The water footprint of rice consumption creates relatively low stress on the water resources in India compared to that in the USA and Pakistan.     

Poland's Accession to the European Union: Demand for Protection of Selected Sensitive Products

This paper analyses the expected changes in external tariffs and imports in Poland after accession to the European Union. We find that around 14% of all manufacturing commodity groups in the Harmonised System will experience tariff reductions of over 10 percentage points, while for agricultural goods tariff comparisons are complicated by very different tariff systems and may be overrated, since applied tariffs are often lower than those legislated. Based on gravity estimates we also find onlly few relatively narrowly defined commodities will experience import growth rates of above 20%. More widely defined sensitive commodities are subject to much smaller but still important import growth     

基于灰色系统理论的我国石油消费对外依存度预测

在分析石油消费对外依存度与各个产业比重的关联度的基础之上,选取关联度最大的第二产业比重建立GM(1,1)模型,引入二阶软化算子调整第二产业比重数列,然后在此基础上建立石油消费对外依存度和第二产业比重的GM(1,2)模型。结果表明,我国石油消费对外依存度以年均1.51%的速度增长,到2018年将达60%。依据石油消费对外依存度指标等级分值表可知,届时我国石油安全处于高度危险的水平,因此,针对如何降低石油消费对外依存度给出了三点建议。