Comparing a country’s production footprint to its consumption footprint

This chart shows the difference between the material footprint caused by what that a country’s economy produces using resources domestically, versus the footprint caused by what that country consumes uses both domestic resources as well as resources from other countries.

Within our global economy, many goods are produced in one country, where the natural-resource use and environmental impacts take place, and consumed in another country, where people use and benefit from the product far from its environmental consequences.

This is why it is important to not only consider the natural-resource use and environmental impacts associated with what a country produces, but also with what a country consumes.

SCP Hotspot Analysis Tool (SCP-HAT) defines these two SCP perspectives:

Domestic production (“territorial approach”)

Here, environmental pressures and impacts are illustrated for the country where they physically occur. For example, SCP-HAT shows the share of greenhouse gas emissions or raw material extraction in the domestic economy.

Consumption footprint (“footprint approach”)

Indicators

The SCP-HAT has a wide range of indicators, covering environmental pressures, environmental impacts and key socio-economic indicators like population, gross domestic production (GDP) and human development index (HDI). This chart covers only a few of these indicators. To view them all in more details and explore breakdowns of the data across 97 economic sectors and sub-sectors, visit the SCP-HAT.

Below the definitions used for each indicator.

• Raw material use:Use of renewable materials e.g. agriculture, forestry and non-renewable materials, e.g. fossil fuels, metals and minerals
• Climate change (short-term):Rate of temperature change, expressed in Global Warming Potential for a 100 year horizon (GWP100)
• Climate change (long-term):Long-term temperature rise, expressed in Global Temperature Change Potential for a 100 year horizon (GTP100)
• Potential species loss from land use:Impact of land-using production processes on biodiversity

In addition to the indicators included in this chart, the SCP-HAT covers also land use, water consumption, energy consumption, fossil fuel depletion, mineral depletion, air pollution (human health), water scarcity and marine eutrophication, as well as a range of socio-economic indicators, such as employment and value added.