an introduction to social metabolism and its operational tool- material and energy flow analysis
DESCRIPTION
Simron Singh SEC-IFFTuesday 5 July 2011An Introduction to Social Metabolism and its Operational Tool- Material and Energy Flow AnalysisTRANSCRIPT
1
Simron Jit Singh
Institute of Social Ecology
Alpen-Adria University, Austria
The political ecology of indicators
An introduction to social metabolism and its
operational tool - Material & Energy Flow Analysis
Source: Steffen et al. 2011
In the last 200 years, humanity has
transitioned into a new geological era—
termed the Anthropocene
— defined by an accelerating
departure from stable environmental
conditions of the past 12,000
years into a new, unknown state of
Earth.
2
The science of indicators
The term “indicator” is derived from the Latin verb indicare meaning to disclose or point out, to announce or make publicly known, toestimate or put a price on. The three main functions of indicators are simplification, quantification and communication.
In order to evaluate progress towards sustainability, the need for indicators and indicator systems was adopted as Agenda 21 at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio.
In the years that followed, significant scientific research was directed towards developing sustainability indicators. Where we are, where are we going, and where do we want to go – monitor the trends and directionality.
The development of Economy-wide Material Flow Accounting (MFA) was one of the prominent attempts in the development of an environmental indicator system.
Environmental satellite accounts linked to the national accounts covering inter alia “the stocks and use of the main natural resources, flows of materials and emissions” became part of the EU agenda in 1999 (Eurostat 2001:9).
However, the science of material and energy flow accounting is older than this; a pioneering work in this direction was done by Abel Wolman, whoundertook a case study of a model U.S. city of a million inhabitants in 1965.
In 1969, Robert Ayres and Allen Kneese presented a study - which in the 1990s was carried out as material flow analysis of national economies - for the United States between 1963 and 1965.
Since, a number of MFAs have been carried out for both industrial, transition and low-income economies (for an intellectual history of MFA, Fischer-Kowalski 1998, Fischer-Kowalski & Hüttler 1999; a more recent review in Singh & Eisenmenger 2011).
MEFA as an indicator system
3
However, there are some painful facts…
No one indicator or indicator system can provide you with all the information to the problems of the world; the choice of indicator will depend on your scientific enquiry
Indicators can tell you “how” things are (including past trends and future probabilities), but not “why” things are the way they are;
Therefore, taking a system dynamics perspective and integration of disciplinary knowledge (particularly from the social sciences) not only gives flesh to the numbers (rich narratives) but also allows to understand structures and processes that cause certain problems (disparities in wealth and health, conflicts, climate change, etc.)
The development of economy-wide Material (& Energy) Flow Accounting (MEFA) was one of the prominent attempts in the development of an environmental indicator system. It allows to:
- analyse the quantity and quality of resources extracted from nature and their passing through processing, transport, final consumption and disposal
- understand the spatial dimension of material flows (where extraction, production, consumption and disposal takes place in the economicprocess)
- interpret the impact of these flows within the framework of sustainability science and ecological economics
- relate these flows to ecological distributional conflicts and reveal embedded power relations (political ecology)
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Problem shifting via international division of labor
Raw material --> semi-/products -->
use disposal
Valueadded
Mass
Developed countriesdeveloping
Mat
eria
l Mon e y
100%
0%
Why analyze material and energy flows?
Materials and energy are biophysical categories necessary for human survival and reproduction
They are finite both in terms of availability and productivity
Patterns of material and energy use (in both quantitative and qualitative terms) affect the future survival of humans and other species
The world is presently experiencing an unprecedented environment crisis due to the ways we consume our resources (materials, energy, land) causing sustainability problems on the input side (scarcity) and the output side (pollution)
This also has social consequences in terms of resource distributional conflicts and environmental justice
5
Environmental problems are a consequence of the way humans
interact with their natural environment
Undertaking a MEFA entails a number of painful decisions, as analytical categories come in conflict with ontological ones
Problem 1:
How to conceptualise society-nature interactions?
6
“Society as hybrid between material
and symbolic worlds”culturalsphere
of causationna
tura
lsph
ere
of c
ausa
tion
Adapted from:
Fischer-Kowalski & Weisz, 1999
“Society as hybrid between material
and symbolic worlds”
7
metabolism
Material world
Adapted from:
Fischer-Kowalski & Weisz, 1999
labour/technology
“Society as hybrid between material
and symbolic worlds”
communication,
Adapted from:
Fischer-Kowalski & Weisz, 1999
metabolism
natu
rals
pher
eof
cau
satio
n culturalsphereof causation
Material worldHuman Society
labour/technology Shared meaning &
understanding
“Society as hybrid between material
and symbolic worlds”
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“Society’s metabolism” means…
…that societies organize (similar to organisms) material and energy flows with their natural environment;
…they extract primary resources and use them for food, machines, buildings, infrastructure, heating and many other products and finally return them, with more or less delay, in the form of wastes and emissions to their environments.
The Two Types of Metabolism
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Theory of sociometabolic regimes
The theory of sociometabolic regimes (Sieferle 2001) claims that,
in world history, at whatever point in time and irrespective of
biogeographical conditions, certain modes of human
production and subsistence share certain fundamental systemic
characteristics, derived from the way they utilize and thereby
modify nature.
Key constraint: energy system (sources of energy and main
technologies of energy conversion).
Slide courtesy: Fischer-Kowalski and colleagues
Sociometabolic regimes can be characterized by ...
1. a metabolic profile, that is a certain structure and level of energy and
materials use (range per capita of human population)
2. secured by certain infrastructures and a range of technologies, as well
as
3. certain economic and governance structures.
4. A certain pattern of demographic reproduction, human life time and
labor structure, and
5. a certain pattern of environmental impact: land-use, resource
exploitation, pollution and impact on the biological evolution
6. Key regulatory positive and negative feedbacks between the socio-
economic system and its natural environment that mould and
constrain the reproduction of the socioecological regime.
Slide courtesy: Fischer-Kowalski and colleagues
10
Historical sociometabolic regimes
Agrarian regime:
1. Solar energy, resource base flow of biomass.
2. infrastructures decentralized. key technology: use of land through agriculture;
3. subsistence economies & market; if more complex, strong hierarchical differentiation;
4. tendency of population growth and increasing workload;
5. potentially sustainable, but soil erosion, wildlife / habitat reduction;
6. distinct limits for physical growth (low energy density);
Industrial regime:
1. Fossil fuel based; exploitation of large stocks;
2. centralized infrastructures, industrial technologies;
3. capitalism and functional differentiation;
4. thrifty reproduction, prolonged socialization, somewhat lesser workload;
5. large-scale pollution (air, water and soil), alteration of atmospheric composition, depletion of mineral resources, biodiversity reduction;
6. abolishment of limits to physical growth; decoupling of land and energy and labour;
Slide courtesy: Fischer-Kowalski and colleagues
Energy consumption in human history
150
40Min103,5
400
70Max20
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Human metabolism Hunter & Gatherer Agrarian societies Industrial societies
GJ p
er
cap
ita a
nd
year
Max
Min
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Operationalising Social Metabolism
Stocks
EconomicProcessing
DEDPO
Imports Exports
Immigrants Emigrants
Air,
WaterWater
Vapour
Domestic environment
Stocks
EconomicProcessing
DEDPO
Imports Exports
Immigrants Emigrants
Air,
WaterWater
Vapour
Problem 1: What belongs to society and what belongs to nature?
Labour as a determining factor
� Humans (what about seasonal migration, tourists)
� Livestock
� Infrastructure and artefacts (buildings, streets, dams,
electricity grids, etc.)
The only exception is agricultural fields, even though they
are reproduced by human labour!!
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Stocks
EconomicProcessing
DEDPO
Imports Exports
Immigrants Emigrants
Air,
WaterWater
Vapour
Problem 2: How to define a social system’s domestic territory to differentiate between
domestic flows and imports?
Legitimate right
� To exploit the resources within a territory, either
through traditional or legal control
� Where existing political and governing institutions
have the ability to set and sanction standards of social
behaviour within that territory
The difficult of a strict systems boundary, particularly in
local rural systems where there are overlaps in land
use with neighbours
Stocks
EconomicProcessing
DEDPO
Imports Exports
Immigrants Emigrants
Air,
WaterWater
Vapour
Problem 3: How to account for externalities or hidden flows?
Flows are accounted for as ‘weight at border’
� All materials that are economically valued are considered
as ‘direct’ inputs, but not, for e.g. earth removed for
construction or used in ploughing, or dredging.
� What about the ‘hidden flows’ or ‘ecological rucksacks’
that occur during extraction, processing or disposal of
resources where these activities take place?
� For e.g. a ton of aluminum requires 9 tons of raw
materials, 3 tons of water and 200 GJ of energy!
� How to account for these externalities?
Total Material Flow (TMR); Raw Material Equivalent (RME); a
political issue!!
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Inclusiveness or exclusiveness of material flows
If all materials, then water and air make up to 85-90% of the total?
Most studies would not lump water, air and other materials (biomass, fuels, minerals) so as not to drown economically valued materials in water and air; so they are kept separate for their sheer amount, as and also supposedly low impact of their use (toxicity);
But this is now changing with studies quantifying the use of water and its ecological and social impacts, including severe conflicts over its access;
Studies on water footprint of products, embodied water, debating on what should be produced where depending on water situation, etc.
14
MFA: Conceptual and Methodological options
Frame of reference / unit of analysis: (a) seen from a social science perspective, the unit of analysis could be the socioeconomic system,treating it like an organism or sophisticated machine, or (b) the ecosystem, seen from a natural science perspective, with mutual feedback loops.
Reference system: Global, national, regional (city or watershed or village), functional (firm, household, economic sector), temporal (various modes of subsistence, social formations, historical systems)
Flows under consideration: total turnover of materials, energy or both; one may select certain flows of materials or chemical substances (inputs or outputs) for reasons of availability in the reference ecosystem, or to look at the rates of consumption.
Map of materials of particular interest for accounting
Source: Steurer 1996
Related policy response:
Small volume with high impact:
policy directed on pollution
control, bans, substitutions, etc.
Medium volume focuses on
policy at reducing materials and
energy intensity or production,
minimization of wastes and
emissions, closing loops
through recycling
High volume flows, policy
objectives will be concerned
with depletion of natural
resources, disruption of habitats
during extractions.
15
Some theoretical and empiricalapplications of MEFA
Social metabolism and its operational tool, MEFA, have contributed theoretically, conceptually, and empirically to a number of discourses within sustainability:
- mapping characteristic metabolic profile (lifestyles) of social and production systems across the world;
- provide empirical evidence on ecological unequal exchange - distributional (equity) issues;
- allows to understand the determinants of social conflicts;
- provide insights into historical and ongoing transitions through an empirical examination of coupled energy, material, land, labour and knowledge systems to reveal inherent power relations and how these are reproduced over time;
- provide evidence in support for a sustainability transition and the challenges it entails, the urgent need for new global resource use policies (UNEP resource use panel);
- provide linkages between social metabolism and environmental impacts such as on biodiversity, climate, ecosystem services, etc.;
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1. Characteristic metabolic profilesfor some countries
Composition of materials input (DMC)
material input EU15 (tonnes, in %)
Biomass
construction minerals
industr.minerals
fossil fuels
total: 17 tonnes/cap*y
source: EUROSTAT 2003
17
Composition of DPO: Wastes and emissions(outflows)
D PO t o air ( C O2 )
D PO t o air*
D PO t o land ( wast e)
D PO t o land ( d issipat ive use)
D PO t o wat er
Source: WRI et al., 2000; own calculations
unweighted means of DPO per capita forA, G, J, NL, US; metric tons
DPO total: 16 tons per capita
Patterns of material use: DMC per capita
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Ch
ile
Fin
lan
d
Ne
the
rla
nd
s
Jap
an
La
o P
DR
Öst
err
eic
h 1
830
Öst
err
eic
h 2
000
EU
15
Eg
ypt
RS
A
Ca
na
da
Ind
ia
[t/c
ap
]
Biomass Construction minerals Industrial minerals + ores Fossil fuels Minerals
Source: Schaffertzik et al. 2006
18
Patterns of material use: DMC per area
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Ch
ile
Fin
lan
d
Ne
the
rla
nds
Jap
an
La
o P
DR
Öst
err
eic
h 1
83
0
Öst
err
eic
h 2
00
0
EU
15
Eg
ypt
RS
A
Ca
na
da
Ind
ia
[t/h
a]
Biomass Construction minerals Industrial minerals + ores Fossil fuels Minerals
Source: Schaffertzik et al. 2006
Patterns of material use: DMC per GDP
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
Ch
ile
Fin
lan
d
Ne
the
rla
nd
s
Jap
an
La
o P
DR
Öst
err
eic
h 1
83
0
Öst
err
eic
h 2
00
0
EU
15
Eg
ypt
RS
A
Ca
na
da
Ind
ia
[t/m
io$
GD
P]
Biomass Construction minerals Industrial minerals + ores Fossil fuels Minerals
Source: Schaffertzik et al. 2006
19
Domestic Material Consumption / cap in EU Countries, 2000
Source: Weisz et al. 2006
2. Socio-metabolic transitions
20
Socio-metabolic transitions
1. Socio-metabolic transition is not the same as a linear incremental path, but rather a (possibly) chaotic and dynamic “jump” from one state to the other driven by new opportunities or the exhaustion of old ones
2. core process of a socio-ecological transition: change in source of energy, in energy density, in energy cost, in available energy amounts
Transitions between the grand socio-metabolicregimes of human history
?Hunters and Gatherers
Agrariansocieties
Industrial societiescoal | oil
Socio-metabolic regimes
Sustainablesociety?
Source: Sieferle et al. 2006, modified
NeolithicRevolution
industrialrevolution
SustainabilityTransition?
21
Systemic links between materials, energy, demography, labour time and income:
A few empirical examples
the energy transition 1700-2000: from biomass to fossil fuels
Share of energysources in primary
energy consumption(DEC)
United Kingdom
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1700 1725 1750 1775 1800 1830 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Biomass
Coal
OIL/Gas/Nuclear
Source: Social Ecology Data Base
biomass
coal
Oil / gas / nuc
22
the energy transition 1700-2000 - latecomers
Share of energy sources in primary energy consumption
(DEC)
United Kingdom
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1700 1725 1750 1775 1800 1830 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Biomass
Coal
OIL/Gas/Nuclear
Austria
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1700 1725 1750 1775 1800 1830 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Biomass
Coal
OIL/Gas/Nuclear
Japan
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1700 1725 1750 1775 1800 1830 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Biomass
Coal
OIL/Gas/Nuclear
Source: Social Ecology Data Base
Japan
AustriaUK
Increasing population (density) 1600-2000
Population density (UK incl. Ireland) (cap/km2)
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
1600
1650
1700
1750
1800
1850
1900
1950
2000
UK &
Ireland
Japan
Austria
Source: Maddison 2002, Social Ecology DB
23
Reduction of agricultural population, and gain in income1600-2000
Share of agricultural population
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1600
1650
1700
1750
1800
1850
1900
1950
2000
GDP per capita [1990US$]
0
5.000
10.000
15.000
20.000
25.000
1600
1650
1700
1750
1800
1850
1900
1950
2000
Source: Maddison 2002, Social Ecology DB
Global commercial energy supply 1900-2005
-
100
200
300
400
500
19
00
19
05
19
10
19
15
19
20
19
25
19
30
19
35
19
40
19
45
19
50
19
55
19
60
19
65
19
70
19
75
19
80
19
85
19
90
19
95
20
00
20
05
[EJ
]
Hydro/Nuclear/Geoth.
Natural Gas
Oil
Coal
Biofuels
Source: Krausmann et al. 2009
0
20
40
60
1900
1905
1910
1915
1920
1925
1930
1935
1940
1945
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
[bil
lio
n t
on
s]
Construction minerals
Ores and industrial minerals
Fossil energy carriers
Biomass
Global materials extraction and use 1900 to 2005:
explosion from 8 to 59 billion tons annually
24
Global metabolic rates and growth in income:long-term decoupling process
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
1900
1905
1910
1915
1920
1925
1930
1935
1940
1945
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
Meta
bolic rate
[t/cap/y
r]
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
Incom
e [in
tl. Dollars
/cap/y
r]Construction minerals
Ores and industrialmineralsFossil energy carriers
Biomass
Income
USA: Transition in energy and material use, 1850 - 2000
Energy
consumption
Material
consumption
Source: Gierlinger 2010
25
India: Transition in energy and material use, 1960 - 2006
-
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1961
1966
1971
1976
1981
1986
1991
1996
2001
2006
[Gt/yr
]
Natural gas
Oil
Coal
Energy consumption
-
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
1961
1966
1971
1976
1981
1986
1991
1996
2001
2006
[Gt/
yr]
Construction minerals
Ores and non metallic minerals
Fossil fuels
Biomass
Material consumption
Source: Singh et. al. submitted
26
Metabolic rates of the agrarian and industrial regimetransition = explosion
Agrarian Industrial Factor
Energy use (DEC) per capita [GJ/cap] 40-70 150-400 3-5
Material use (DMC) per capita [t/cap] 3-6 15-25 3-5
Population density [cap/km²] <40 < 400 3-10
Agricultural population [%] >80% <10% 0.1
Energy use (DEC) per area [GJ/ha] <30 < 600 10-30
Material use (DMC) per area [t/ha] <2 < 50 10-30
Biomass (share of DEC) [%] >95 10-30 0.1-0.3
Source: Krausmann et al. 2008
3. Dematerialization or shifting environmentalburdens from north to south
(ecological unequal exchange)
27
� Meadows et al. (1972) argued that economic growth would
have to be stalled in order to remain within the earth’s
carrying capacity
� As opposed to Meadows, Ayres and Kneese’s solution was
more subtle and acceptable to economists…it was not
economic growth that mattered but the growth in the material
throughput of human societies that was significant.
28
29
Unequal distribution of global resources (for the year 2000)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
S hare o f popu la tion S ha re o f te rrito ry S ha re o f G D P
D - Ld - owD - Ld - nwD - H dI - Ld - owI - Ld - nwI - H d
Slide courtesy: Fischer-Kowalski and colleagues
30
4. Relating materialand energy flows
with conflicts
Environmental conflicts
• Conflictual Political Ecology is a research tradition that focuses on issues of management of natural resources and the environment, often with “conflict” as the point of departure; deals with ecological distributionalconflicts;
• Ecological unequal exchange looks at the resource flows between north and south in historical and contemporary context within the framework of political economy (power and economic relations dominate trade)
Studies in conflictual Political Ecology began in the 1980s with geographers studying rural areas on the changing relations between social structures and the use of environment taking into accountdifferences in class, caste, income, power, gender, labour and knowledge;
31
Conflictual Political Ecology
• For instances, explanations of land erosion in the mountain regions by peasants was explained by the fact that they are forced to farm mountain slopes because the fertile valley land is appropriated by large landholdings
• Or, in other cases, because of state policies, peasants are caught up in a “scissors crisis” of low agricultural prices, which forces them to shorten fallow periods and intensify production; increased soil erosion and land degradation
• In other cases, communal system of collectively fallowed lands break down because of the pressure from population growth or market, leading to overgrazing; degradation of land (supports the ‘tragedy of the commons’)
Conflictual Political Ecology
• Other examples may not include the market or take place in fictitious markets; thus, potential conflicts may arise due to inequalities in per capita exosomatic energy consumption and in the use of the Earth’s recycling capacity of carbon dioxide emissions;
• Or, the territorial asymmetries between sulphur dioxide emissions and the burdens of acid rain;
• Or, the intergenerational inequalities between the enjoyment of nuclear energy (or emissions of carbon dioxide), and burdens of radioactive wastes and global warming;
• Classical economists disguise these ecological distributional conflicts by terms such as “externalities” and “market failures” while political ecologists or ecological economists call these “cost-shifting successes” in space and time;
32
Name Definition
Environmental racism Dumping of toxic waste in locations inhabited byArfrican Americans, Latinos, Native Americans
Toxic imperialism Dumping of toxic wastes in poor countries
Ecological unequalexchange
Importing products from poor regions orcountries at prices which do not take intoaccount of exhaustion or of local externalities
Ecological debt Claiming damages from rich countries on account of past excessive emissions orplundering natural resources
Transboundary pollution Applied to Sulphur dioxide emissions crossingover from Europe and causing acid rain
Biopiracy The appropriation of genetic resources withoutadequate payment or recognition of IPR
Types of Ecological Distributional Conflicts
Guha & Martinez Alier 1997,
Martinez-Alier 2002
Name Definition
Ecological Footprint Ecological impact of regions or large cities on the outside space
Omnivorous vs. Ecosystem people
Contrast between people living on their ownresources and those living on the resources of others / territories
Indigenousenvironmentalism
Use of territorial rights and ethnic resistanceagainst external use of resources of regulation
Social ecofeminism The environmental activism of womenmotivated by their social situation
Environmentalism of thepoor
Social conflicts with an ecological conflict of thepoor against the rich
Types of Ecological Distributional Conflicts
Guha & Martinez Alier 1997,
Martinez-Alier 2002
33
Reported tree plantation conflict cases world-
wide (excluding Indonesia and Malaysia,
until November 2009)
• Cities require large inputs of material and energy resources, but they have very littleproductive land of their own; theydepend on hinterlands (national or international) for their supply of materials and energy for theirmetabolism (infrastructure, food, products) as well as wastedisposal; corporations and enterprises organise thisproduction – supply – disposalchain for the city at profitable rates, while ignoring proper compensation and externalities of the hinterland populations…
E.g. Barcelona produces 800 t of waste each day, dumped in ruralsites, leading to conflicts
Metabolism of cities and conflicts
34
The conflicts in Catalan can beseen as a problem of energy metabolism whereenergy production takesplace in rural hinterlands(nuclear, wind); while citydwellers enjoy most of theenergy supply, and capitalists make high gainsin this production – supplychain, the low economiccompensation as well as externalities are borne bythe rural populations;
Energy metabolism of Catalan
Monetary and physical trade balance in Equador
Source: Vallejo (2010)
35
Resource extraction and conflicts in Equador
Source: Vallejo (2010)
The “power”of indicators
36
Indicator development is a political process
Which indicators to create, and which numbers goes into an indicator, and remains outside, what is the systems boundary – is a political process and has embedded power relations;
The science of indicators can be highly useful for activist agenda; to reveal existing inequalities and imbalances between those privileged and those marginalised
Indicators may serve as evidence in court, seek new state regulations, or in getting mass public support
Synergism between ecological economics and political ecology; mutually complementary
How do these national and global processes
affect the sustainabilityof local systems?
37
Thank you for beingsilent!