Bridging the climate mitigation gap with economy‐wide material productivity
Open accessAbstract
Projections of UK greenhouse gas emissions estimate a shortfall in existing and planned climate policies meeting UK climate targets: the UK's mitigation gap. Material and product demand is driving industrial greenhouse gas emissions at a rate greater than carbon intensity improvements in the economy. Evidence shows that products can be produced with fewer carbon intensive inputs and demand for new products can be reduced. The economy‐wide contribution of material productivity and lifestyle changes to bridging the UK's mitigation gap is understudied. We integrate an input‐output framework with econometric analysis and case study evidence to analyse the potential of material productivity to help the UK bridge its anticipated emissions deficits, and the additional effort required to achieve transformative change aligned with 2 and 1.5°C temperature targets. We estimate that the emissions savings from material productivity measures are comparable to those from the Government's planned climate policy package. These additional measures could reduce the UK's anticipated emissions deficit up to 73%. The results demonstrate that material productivity deserves greater consideration in climate policy.
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Emerging work on a country level may offer indications for how the effect of ME can be modeled.
“Emerging work on a country level may offer indications for how the effect of ME can be modeled [216,217].”
From Material efficiency strategies to reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with buildings, vehicles, and electronics—a review (2019) · cites this paper as [216]
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Hertwich, E. G., Ali, S., Ciacci, L., Fishman, T., Heeren, N., Masanet, E., Asghari, F. N., Olivetti, E., Pauliuk, S., Tu, Q., et al. (2019) · Environmental Research Letters · doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ab0fe3 · Cited by 477 · see citing works
- Authors
- Scott, K., Giesekam, J., Barrett, J., & Owen, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Leeds (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Scott, Kate
- Venue
- Journal of Industrial Ecology
- Published
- 2018-12-05
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 918-931
- ISSN
- 1088-1980 (ISSN-L)
- 1530-9290
- PMC
- PMC13065607
- OpenAlex
- W2901815052
- Cited by
- 47
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 8
- FWCI
- 9.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Industrial Ecology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
- Strathprints: The University of Strathclyde institutional repository (University of Strathclyde) (submittedVersion)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Natural Environment Research Council (NE/R012881/1)
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/R005052/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Climate Change Policy and Economics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Sustainability and Ecological Systems Analysis
- Keywords
- material productivity, greenhouse gas emissions, industrial emissions, product demand, lifestyle modification, carbon intensity, climate policy, transformative change
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