Projects: Modelling Eco-efficiency and Sustainabilty of the Austrian Economy

This project, supported by the Jubiläumsfond der Österreichischen Nationalbank, basically intends to prepare a modelling framework that integrates all dimensions of sustainability as well as overcomes the missing links between the stock-flow relationships and the central role of technical progress. This will be done by adapting an disaggregated static input-output-model for the Austrian Economy.

In order to show if a dematerialization or de-linking of material use and economic growth already took place in Austrian sectors, evidence must be provided if all necessary data for the desired model are available or which effort must be done to collect them. Furthermore the project seeks to calculate the reduction in emissions and resource use (increase in eco-efficiency) resulting from technical change. Thereby, the objective is to gain a better understanding of the role of economic structural change with the intention of increasing the eco-efficiency.

To enable an improved policy analysis for the transition to sustainable economic structures, adjustments of conventional models are necessary. Currently available models were mainly designed in flow-oriented paradigms that neglected the dynamic interaction with stocks and the important role of the substitution of flows by stocks in order to reduce material throughput. Therefore an essential part of the project is devoted to carrying out the possibility to substitute flows by stocks. The fact, that to a large extent material flows (as energy) can be substituted by stocks (as improved thermal stock of buildings) offers the motivation to search for guidelines concerning these flow-stock relationships that are compatible with sustainability criteria. In this context the development of scenarios should clarify the relationship between stocks and flows. Emphasizing the possibility of substitution of flows by stocks, the concept of stocks should be integrated in the methodological framework of sustainability analysis.