1. Resource use: Assess and comprehensively quantify the European (EU-15 plus accession countries) use of resources (scale) in terms of material flows, energy inputs and land use, including “ecological rucksacks” induced by international trade flows in other regions of the world. Integrating data, which is already available for many of the countries, the project will be the first to present a complete compilation of direct domestic material inputs (including domestic hidden flows), energy inputs and land use for Europe as well as all economically important regions of the world, disaggregated by economic sectors and countries. MOSUS will provide accounting and analysis of the economic sectors (industries) and regions/countries by which these resource flows are activated (within and outside Europe).
2. Sustainability scenarios: Formulating and evaluating European and global scenarios of economic performance and their interaction with resource use and environmental deterioration, which should be decoupled from economic growth on the path toward sustainable development. Analysis of the environmental, social and economic impacts of key European environmental policy options and instruments, as listed e.g. in the 6th Environment Action Programme, such as fiscal reform, reform of the subsidy systems, tradable permits, environmental agreements, trade rules or joint implementation. Analysis of the distribution of impacts considering economic (sectors), social (employment, income distribution) and environmental (effects on resource use) aspects concerning various countries and population groups. Trends of economic growth, employment and total resource use will be modelled both under business as usual assumptions and other alternative scenario settings to enable identification of trade-offs between different policy strategies.
3. Indicators: Conceptualising the economics of the economy-ecology relationship in terms of socio-economic driving forces and their environmental impacts as suggested by the European Council (comparative static as well as dynamic analysis). The project will present the theoretical links between variables (headline indicators) that will be mapped by European reporting mechanisms according to the Lisbon, Nice and Gothenburg decisions of the European Council in a theoretically coherent framework, which allows for the explanation and prediction of developments of the suggested indicators. The project will refine environmental headline indicators as proposed by the European Commission and the Global Reporting Initiative, such as total material requirement (TMR) and land use change indicators and relate them to traditional economic aggregates in order to assess resource productivities, material and energy intensities and labour intensities of resource use for European economies.
4. Policy strategies and instruments: Elaborating policy strategies and actions capable for reconciling long-term economic development in Europe, the promotion of international trade and environmental protection requirements. Formulating concrete policy suggestions for possible adaptations to (global) environmental changes. Identifying best policy tools to implement the Sustainable Development Strategy in Europe.
