IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v38y2010i7p3518-3526.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Comparing emergy accounting with well-known sustainability metrics: The case of Southern Cone Common Market, Mercosur

Author

Listed:
  • Giannetti, B.F.
  • Almeida, C.M.V.B.
  • Bonilla, S.H.

Abstract

The quality and the power of human activities affect the external environment in different ways that can be measured and evaluated by means of several approaches and indicators. While the scientific community has been publishing several proposals for sustainable development indicators, there is still no consensus regarding the best approach to the use of these indicators and their reliability to measure sustainability. It is important, therefore, to question the effectiveness of sustainable development indicators in an effort to continue in the search for sustainability. This paper compares the results obtained with emergy accounting with five global Sustainability Metrics (SMs) proposed in the literature to verify if metrics are communicating coherent and similar information to guide decision makers towards sustainable development. Results obtained using emergy indices are discussed with the aid of emergy ternary diagrams. Metrics are confronted with emergy results, and the degree of variability among them is analyzed using a correlation matrix created for the Mercosur nations. The contrast of results clearly shows that metrics arrive at different interpretations about the sustainability of the nations studied, but also that some metrics may be grouped and used more prudently. Mercosur is presented as a case study to highlight and explain the discrepancies and similarities among Sustainability Metrics, and to expose the extent of emergy accounting.

Suggested Citation

  • Giannetti, B.F. & Almeida, C.M.V.B. & Bonilla, S.H., 2010. "Comparing emergy accounting with well-known sustainability metrics: The case of Southern Cone Common Market, Mercosur," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 3518-3526, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:38:y:2010:i:7:p:3518-3526
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(10)00108-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giampietro, Mario & Mayumi, Kozo & Munda, Giuseppe, 2006. "Integrated assessment and energy analysis: Quality assurance in multi-criteria analysis of sustainability," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 59-86.
    2. Beckerman, Wilfred, 1992. "Economic growth and the environment: Whose growth? whose environment?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 481-496, April.
    3. Sciubba, Enrico & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2005. "Emergy and exergy analyses: Complementary methods or irreducible ideological options?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 1953-1988.
    4. Jiang, M.M. & Chen, B. & Zhou, J.B. & Tao, F.R. & Li, Z. & Yang, Z.F. & Chen, G.Q., 2007. "Emergy account for biomass resource exploitation by agriculture in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 4704-4719, September.
    5. Gasparatos, Alexandros & El-Haram, Mohamed & Horner, Malcolm, 2009. "Assessing the sustainability of the UK society using thermodynamic concepts: Part 1," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 1074-1081, June.
    6. Alexandros Gasparatos & Mohamed El-Haram & Malcolm Horner, 2009. "The argument against a reductionist approach for measuring sustainable development performance and the need for methodological pluralism," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 245-256, September.
    7. Van de Kerk, Geurt & Manuel, Arthur R., 2008. "A comprehensive index for a sustainable society: The SSI -- the Sustainable Society Index," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 228-242, June.
    8. Giannantoni, Corrado & Zoli, Mariangela, 2010. "The Four-Sector Diagram of Benefits (FSDOB) as a method for evaluating strategic interactions between humans and the environment: The case study of hydrogen fuel cell buses," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 486-494, January.
    9. Dong, Xiaobin & Ulgiati, Sergio & Yan, Maochao & Zhang, Xinshi & Gao, Wangsheng, 2008. "Energy and eMergy evaluation of bioethanol production from wheat in Henan Province, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 3882-3892, October.
    10. Daly, Herman E., 1990. "Toward some operational principles of sustainable development," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-6, April.
    11. Gasparatos, Alexandros & El-Haram, Mohamed & Horner, Malcolm, 2009. "The argument against a reductionist approach for measuring sustainable development performance and the need for methodological pluralism," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 245-256.
    12. Nourry, Myriam, 2008. "Measuring sustainable development: Some empirical evidence for France from eight alternative indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 441-456, October.
    13. Siche, J.R. & Agostinho, F. & Ortega, E. & Romeiro, A., 2008. "Sustainability of nations by indices: Comparative study between environmental sustainability index, ecological footprint and the emergy performance indices," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 628-637, July.
    14. Gasparatos, Alexandros & El-Haram, Mohamed & Horner, Malcolm, 2009. "Assessing the sustainability of the UK society using thermodynamic concepts: Part 2," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 956-970, June.
    15. Sutton, Paul C. & Costanza, Robert, 2002. "Global estimates of market and non-market values derived from nighttime satellite imagery, land cover, and ecosystem service valuation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 509-527, June.
    16. Brown, M. T. & Herendeen, R. A., 1996. "Embodied energy analysis and EMERGY analysis: a comparative view," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 219-235, December.
    17. Ayres, Robert U., 2008. "Sustainability economics: Where do we stand?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 281-310, September.
    18. Chen, Cheng-Zhong & Lin, Zhen-Shan, 2008. "Multiple timescale analysis and factor analysis of energy ecological footprint growth in China 1953-2006," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 1666-1678, May.
    19. Gasparatos, Alexandros & Gadda, Tatiana, 2009. "Environmental support, energy security and economic growth in Japan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 4038-4048, October.
    20. Zhang, L.X. & Yang, Z.F. & Chen, G.Q., 2007. "Emergy analysis of cropping-grazing system in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 3843-3855, July.
    21. Kemmler, Andreas & Spreng, Daniel, 2007. "Energy indicators for tracking sustainability in developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 2466-2480, April.
    22. Gentilini, Ugo & Webb, Patrick, 2008. "How are we doing on poverty and hunger reduction? A new measure of country performance," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 521-532, December.
    23. Distaso, Alba, 2007. "Well-being and/or quality of life in EU countries through a multidimensional index of sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 163-180, October.
    24. Chen, G.Q. & Chen, B., 2009. "Extended-exergy analysis of the Chinese society," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 1127-1144.
    25. Dong, Xiaobin & Ulgiati, Sergio & Yan, Maochao & Gao, Wangsheng, 2008. "Progress, influence and perspectives of emergy theories in China, in support of environmentally sound economic development and equitable trade," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 1019-1028, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Diego Ferraro & Daniela Blanco & Sebasti'an Pessah & Rodrigo Castro, 2021. "Land use change in agricultural systems: an integrated ecological-social simulation model of farmer decisions and cropping system performance based on a cellular automata approach," Papers 2109.01031, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2021.
    2. De La Fuente, G. & Asnaghi, V. & Chiantore, M. & Thrush, S. & Povero, P. & Vassallo, P. & Petrillo, M. & Paoli, C., 2019. "The effect of Cystoseira canopy on the value of midlittoral habitats in NW Mediterranean, an emergy assessment," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 404(C), pages 1-11.
    3. Khosravi, Faramarz & Izbirak, Gokhan & Shavarani, Seyed Mahdi, 2021. "Application of bootstrap re-sampling method in statistical measurement of sustainability," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    4. Gengyuan Liu & Mark T. Brown & Marco Casazza, 2017. "Enhancing the Sustainability Narrative through a Deeper Understanding of Sustainable Development Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-19, June.
    5. Giannetti, B.F. & Demétrio, J.F.C. & Bonilla, S.H. & Agostinho, F. & Almeida, C.M.V.B., 2013. "Emergy diagnosis and reflections towards Brazilian sustainable development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1002-1012.
    6. Giannetti, Biagio F. & Sevegnani, Fábio & Almeida, Cecília M.V.B. & Agostinho, Feni & Moreno García, Roberto R. & Liu, Gengyuan, 2019. "Five sector sustainability model: A proposal for assessing sustainability of production systems," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 406(C), pages 98-108.
    7. Giannetti, Biagio F. & Faria, Luciana & Almeida, Cecília M.V.B. & Agostinho, Feni & Coscieme, Luca & Liu, Gengyuan, 2018. "Human-nature nexuses in Brazil: Monitoring production of economic and ecosystem services in historical series," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 30(PB), pages 248-256.
    8. Haizhen Wu & Weiguo Fan & Jianchang Lu, 2021. "Researching on the Sustainability of Transportation Industry Based on a Coupled Emergy and System Dynamics Model: A Case Study of Qinghai," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-19, June.
    9. Liu, Xinyu & Liu, Gengyuan & Yang, Zhifeng & Chen, Bin & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2016. "Comparing national environmental and economic performances through emergy sustainability indicators: Moving environmental ethics beyond anthropocentrism toward ecocentrism," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1532-1542.
    10. Guomin Li & Yaoqiu Kuang & Ningsheng Huang & Xiangyang Chang, 2014. "Emergy Synthesis and Regional Sustainability Assessment: Case Study of Pan-Pearl River Delta in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(8), pages 1-28, August.
    11. Li, Linjun & Lu, Hongfang & Campbell, Daniel E. & Ren, Hai, 2011. "Methods for estimating the uncertainty in emergy table-form models," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(15), pages 2615-2622.
    12. Xiumei Xu & Chao Feng & Yongshan Du & Qimeng Wang & Gaige Zhang & Yicheng Huang, 2022. "Evaluating the sustainability of a tourism system based on emergy accounting and emergetic ternary diagrams: a case study of the Xinjiang Kanas tourism area," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(5), pages 6731-6787, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Shaoqing & Chen, Bin, 2012. "Sustainability and future alternatives of biogas-linked agrosystem (BLAS) in China: An emergy synthesis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 3948-3959.
    2. Gasparatos, Alexandros, 2011. "Resource consumption in Japanese agriculture and its link to food security," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1101-1112, March.
    3. Lu, Hongfang & Lin, Bin-Le & Campbell, Daniel E. & Sagisaka, Masayuki & Ren, Hai, 2012. "Biofuel vs. biodiversity? Integrated emergy and economic cost-benefit evaluation of rice-ethanol production in Japan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 442-450.
    4. Chen, Shaoqing & Chen, Bin, 2014. "Energy efficiency and sustainability of complex biogas systems: A 3-level emergetic evaluation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 151-163.
    5. Dai, Jing & Chen, Bin & Hayat, Tasawar & Alsaedi, Ahmed & Ahmad, Bashir, 2015. "Sustainability-based economic and ecological evaluation of a rural biogas-linked agro-ecosystem," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 347-355.
    6. Wang, Xiuhong & Shen, Jianxiu & Zhang, Wei, 2014. "Emergy evaluation of agricultural sustainability of Northwest China before and after the grain-for-green policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 508-516.
    7. Serrenho, André Cabrera & Warr, Benjamin & Sousa, Tânia & Ayres, Robert U. & Domingos, Tiago, 2016. "Structure and dynamics of useful work along the agriculture-industry-services transition: Portugal from 1856 to 2009," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-21.
    8. Seckin, Candeniz & Bayulken, Ahmet R., 2013. "Extended Exergy Accounting (EEA) analysis of municipal wastewater treatment – Determination of environmental remediation cost for municipal wastewater," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 55-64.
    9. Qi, Hai & Dong, Zhiliang & Dong, Shaohui & Sun, Xiaotian & Zhao, Yiran & Li, Yu, 2021. "Extended exergy accounting for smelting and pressing of metals industry in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    10. Bastianoni, S. & Facchini, A. & Susani, L. & Tiezzi, E., 2007. "Emergy as a function of exergy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1158-1162.
    11. Yang, Jin & Chen, Bin, 2014. "Emergy analysis of a biogas-linked agricultural system in rural China – A case study in Gongcheng Yao Autonomous County," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 173-182.
    12. Byers, Edward A. & Gasparatos, Alexandros & Serrenho, André C., 2015. "A framework for the exergy analysis of future transport pathways: Application for the United Kingdom transport system 2010–2050," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 849-862.
    13. Umberto Lucia & Debora Fino & Giulia Grisolia, 2022. "A thermoeconomic indicator for the sustainable development with social considerations," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 2022-2036, February.
    14. Zhang, Bo & Chen, G.Q. & Xia, X.H. & Li, S.C. & Chen, Z.M. & Ji, Xi, 2012. "Environmental emissions by Chinese industry: Exergy-based unifying assessment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 490-501.
    15. Jiang, M.M. & Chen, B., 2011. "Integrated urban ecosystem evaluation and modeling based on embodied cosmic exergy," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(13), pages 2149-2165.
    16. Bo Zhang & Suping Peng & Xiangyang Xu & Lijie Wang, 2011. "Embodiment Analysis for Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Chinese Economy Based on Global Thermodynamic Potentials," Energies, MDPI, vol. 4(11), pages 1-19, November.
    17. Marvuglia, Antonino & Benetto, Enrico & Rios, Gordon & Rugani, Benedetto, 2013. "SCALE: Software for CALculating Emergy based on life cycle inventories," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 248(C), pages 80-91.
    18. Nancy Arizpe & Jesus Ramos-Martin & Mario Giampietro, 2012. "An analysis of the metabolic patterns of two rural communities affected by soy expansion in the North of Argentina," UHE Working papers 2012_06, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Departament d'Economia i Història Econòmica, Unitat d'Història Econòmica.
    19. Bligh, David C. & Ismet Ugursal, V., 2012. "Extended exergy analysis of the economy of Nova Scotia, Canada," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 878-890.
    20. Philipp Babcicky, 2013. "Rethinking the Foundations of Sustainability Measurement: The Limitations of the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(1), pages 133-157, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:38:y:2010:i:7:p:3518-3526. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.