IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/inecol/v8y2004i4p139-154.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Ecological Footprint Intensity of National Economies

Author

Listed:
  • Richard York
  • Eugene A. Rosa
  • Thomas Dietz

Abstract

At least three perspectives—industrial ecology (IE), ecological modernization theory (EMT), and the “environmental Kuznets curve” (EKC)—emphasize the potential for sustainability via refinements in production systems that dramatically reduce the environmental impacts of economic development. Can improvements in efficiency counterbalance environmental impacts stemming from the scale of production? To address this question we analyze cross‐national variation in the ecological footprint (EF) per unit of gross domestic product (GDP). The EF is a widely recognized indicator of human pressure on the environment. The EF of a nation is the amount of land area that would be required to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb the wastes it generates. The most striking finding of our analyses is that there is limited variation across nations in EF per unit of GDP. This indicates limited plasticity in the levels of EF intensity or eco‐efficiency among nations, particularly among affluent nations. EF intensity is lowest (ecoefficiency is highest) in affluent nations, but the level of efficiency in these nations does not appear to be of sufficient magnitude to compensate for their large productive capacities. These results suggest that modernization and economic development will be insufficient, in themselves, to bring about the ecological sustainability of societies.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard York & Eugene A. Rosa & Thomas Dietz, 2004. "The Ecological Footprint Intensity of National Economies," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 8(4), pages 139-154, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:8:y:2004:i:4:p:139-154
    DOI: 10.1162/1088198043630487
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1162/1088198043630487
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1162/1088198043630487?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Gergely Tóth & Cecília Szigeti & Gábor Harangozó & Dániel Róbert Szabó, 2018. "Ecological Footprint at the Micro-Scale—How It Can Save Costs: The Case of ENPRO," Resources, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-14, August.
    2. Muhammad Shahzad Sardar & Nabila Asghar & Mubbasher Munir & Reda Alhajj & Hafeez ur Rehman, 2022. "Moderation of Services’ EKC through Transportation Competitiveness: PQR Model in Global Prospective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-17, December.
    3. Stefano B. Longo & Brett Clark & Thomas E. Shriver & Rebecca Clausen, 2016. "Sustainability and Environmental Sociology: Putting the Economy in its Place and Moving Toward an Integrative Socio-Ecology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-17, May.
    4. Daniel A. Salas & Paulina Criollo & Angel D. Ramirez, 2021. "The Role of Higher Education Institutions in the Implementation of Circular Economy in Latin America," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-27, August.
    5. Tao Liu & Jixia Li & Juan Chen & Shaolei Yang, 2019. "Urban Ecological Efficiency and Its Influencing Factors—A Case Study in Henan Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-20, September.
    6. Ahmet ATIL ASICI & Sevil ACAR, 2017. "The carbon footprint of countries’ production and imports: an Environmental Kuznets Curve approach," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 46, pages 7-19.
    7. Kahn, Matthew E., 2007. "Do greens drive Hummers or hybrids? Environmental ideology as a determinant of consumer choice," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 129-145, September.
    8. Eyup Dogan & Nigar Taspinar & Korhan K Gokmenoglu, 2019. "Determinants of ecological footprint in MINT countries," Energy & Environment, , vol. 30(6), pages 1065-1086, September.
    9. Bimonte, Salvatore & Stabile, Arsenio, 2017. "Land consumption and income in Italy: a case of inverted EKC," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 36-43.
    10. Siyu Zhu & Ying Ding & Run Pan & Aifang Ding, 2023. "Analysis of Interprovincial Differences in CO 2 Emissions and Peak Prediction in the Yangtze River Delta," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-16, April.
    11. Amirmohsen Behjat & Mohammad Hassan Tarazkar, 2021. "Investigating the factors affecting the ecological well-being performance in Iran from 1994 to 2014," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(9), pages 13871-13889, September.
    12. Bertinelli, Luisito & Strobl, Eric & Zou, Benteng, 2008. "Economic development and environmental quality: A reassessment in light of nature's self-regeneration capacity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 371-378, June.
    13. Esposito, Piero & Patriarca, Fabrizio & Salvati, Luca, 2018. "Tertiarization and land use change: The case of Italy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 80-86.
    14. Thomas Wiedmann & John Barrett, 2010. "A Review of the Ecological Footprint Indicator—Perceptions and Methods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(6), pages 1-49, June.
    15. Emery, Andrew & Davies, Anthony & Griffiths, Anthony & Williams, Keith, 2007. "Environmental and economic modelling: A case study of municipal solid waste management scenarios in Wales," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 244-263.
    16. Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Bekun, Festus Victor & Etokakpan, Mfonobong Udom & Driha, Oana M., 2019. "A road to enhancements in natural gas use in Iran: A multivariate modelling approach," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    17. Oppon, Eunice & Richter, Justin S. & Koh, S.C. Lenny & Nabayiga, Hellen, 2023. "Macro-level economic and environmental sustainability of negative emission technologies; Case study of crushed silicate production for enhanced weathering," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:inecol:v:8:y:2004:i:4:p:139-154. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1088-1980 .

    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.