ALBERT

Description: This dataset updates the global-scale mining polygons (Version 1) available from https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.910894. It contains 44,929 polygon features, covering 101,583 km² of land used by the global mining industry, including large-scale and artisanal and small-scale mining. The polygons cover all ground features related to mining, .e.g open cuts, tailing dams, waste rock dumps, water ponds, processing infrastructure, and other land cover types related to the mining activities. The data was derived using a similar methodology as the first version by visual interpretation of satellite images. The study area was limited to a 10 km buffer around the 34,820 mining coordinates reported in the S&P metals and mining database. We digitalized the mining areas using the 2019 Sentinel-2 cloudless mosaic with 10 m spatial resolution (https://s2maps.eu by EOX IT Services GmbH - Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2019). We also consulted Google Satellite and Microsoft Bing Imagery, but only as additional information to help identify land cover types linked to the mining activities. The main data set consists of a GeoPackage (GPKG) file, including the following variables: ISO3_CODE〈string〉, COUNTRY_NAME〈string〉, AREA〈double〉 in squared kilometres, FID〈integer〉 with the feature ID, and geom〈polygon〉 in geographical coordinates WGS84. The summary of the mining area per country is available in comma-separated values (CSV) file, including the following variables: ISO3_CODE〈string〉, COUNTRY_NAME〈string〉, AREA〈double〉 in squared kilometres, and N_FEATURES〈integer〉 number of mapped features. Grid data sets with the mining area per cell were derived from the polygons. The grid data is available at 30 arc-second resolution (approximately 1x1 km at the equator), 5 arc-minute (approximately 10x10 km at the equator), and 30 arc-minute resolution (approximately 55x55 km at the equator). We performed an independent validation of the mining data set using control points. For that, we draw 1,000 random samples stratified between two classes: mine and no-mine. The control points are also available as a GPKG file, including the variables: MAPPED〈string〉, REFERENCE〈string〉, FID〈integer〉 with the feature ID, and geom〈point〉 in geographical coordinates WGS84. The overall accuracy calculated from the control points was 88.3%, Kappa 0.77, F1 score 0.87, producer's accuracy of class mine 78.9 % and user's accuracy of class mine 97.2 %.

Description: This contribution presents the state of the art of economy-wide material flow accounting. Starting from a brief recollection of the intellectual and policy history of this approach, we outline system definition, key methodological assumptions, and derived indicators. The next section makes an effort to establish data reliability and uncertainty for a number of existing multinational (European and global) material flow accounting (MFA) data compilations and discusses sources of inconsistencies and variations for some indicators and trends. The results show that the methodology has reached a certain maturity: Coefficients of variation between databases lie in the range of 10% to 20%, and correlations between databases across countries amount to an average R2 of 0.95. After discussing some of the research frontiers for further methodological development, we conclude that the material flow accounting framework and the data generated have reached a maturity that warrants material flow indicators to complement traditional economic and demographic information in providing a sound basis for discussing national and international policies for sustainable resource use.

Description: Technological breakthroughs and policy measures targeting energy efficiency and clean energy alone will not suffice to deliver Paris Agreement-compliant greenhouse gas emissions trajectories in the next decades. Strong cases have recently been made for acknowledging the decarbonisation potential lying in transforming linear economic models into closed-loop industrial ecosystems and in shifting lifestyle patterns towards this direction. This perspective highlights the research capacity needed to inform on the role and potential of the circular economy for climate change mitigation and to enhance the scientific capabilities to quantitatively explore their synergies and trade-offs. This begins with establishing conceptual and methodological bridges amongst the relevant and currently fragmented research communities, thereby allowing an interdisciplinary integration and assessment of circularity, decarbonisation, and sustainable development. Following similar calls for science in support of climate action, a transdisciplinary scientific agenda is needed to co-create the goals and scientific processes underpinning the transition pathways towards a circular, net-zero economy with representatives from policy, industry, and civil society. Here, it is argued that such integration of disciplines, methods, and communities can then lead to new and/or structurally enhanced quantitative systems models that better represent critical industrial value chains, consumption patterns, and mitigation technologies. This will be a crucial advancement towards assessing the material implications of, and the contribution of enhanced circularity performance to, mitigation pathways that are compatible with the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement and the transition to a circular economy.

Description: Environmentally extended multiregional input-output (EE MRIO) tables have emerged as a key framework to provide a comprehensive description of the global economy and analyze its effects on the environment. Of the available EE MRIO databases, EXIOBASE stands out as a database compatible with the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) with a high sectorial detail matched with multiple social and environmental satellite accounts. In this paper, we present the latest developments realized with EXIOBASE 3 - a time series of EE MRIO tables ranging from 1995 to 2011 for 44 countries (28 EU member plus 16 major economies) and five rest of the world regions. EXIOBASE 3 builds upon the previous versions of EXIOBASE by using rectangular supply-use tables (SUTs) in a 163 industry by 200 products classification as the main building blocks. In order to capture structural changes, economic developments, as reported by national statistical agencies, were imposed on the available, disaggregated SUTs from EXIOBASE 2. These initial estimates were further refined by incorporating detailed data on energy, agricultural production, resource extraction, and bilateral trade. EXIOBASE 3 inherits the high level of environmental stressor detail from its precursor, with further improvement in the level of detail for resource extraction. To account for the expansion of the European Union (EU), EXIOBASE 3 was developed with the full EU28 country set (including the new member state Croatia). EXIOBASE 3 provides a unique tool for analyzing the dynamics of environmental pressures of economic activities over time.

Description: Measuring progress towards sustainable development requires appropriate frameworks and databases. The System of Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA) is undergoing continuous refinement with these objectives in mind. In SEEA, there is a need for databases to encompass the global dimension of societal metabolism. In this paper, we focus on the latest effort to construct a global multi-regional input-output database (EXIOBASE) with a focus on environmentally relevant activities. The database and its broader analytical framework allows for the as yet most detailed insight into the production-related impacts and "footprints" of our consumption. We explore the methods used to arrive at the database, and some key relationships extracted from the database.