Total comsumption of natural resources
| Updated: 16.11.2012 - Next update: 19.11.2013 |
|
Total material requirement in Finland's national economy in 2011 was 540 million tonnes, slightly more than in the previous year. The calculation includes natural resources taken in Finland but not used, as well as indirect material flows abroad related to imported goods, so-called hidden flows. The amount of unused, but extracted natural resources was 80 million tonnes in Finland last year, and the amount of international hidden flows was estimated to be 215 million tonnes. The national economy's direct use of materials was 245 million tonnes.
Total material requirement has almost doubled from 1970 to 2011. By international comparison, material requirement as direct input per capita is currently notably high in Finland, 45 tonnes per capita a year, while the EU average is 16 tonnes. Especially the direct input and the hidden flows from imports have grown; the former 2.3-fold and the latter 3.5-fold in 40 years. The material intensity of Finland's economy, or the amount of used material relative to GDP, has, however, shown a decreasing trend and, so far, it has been at its lowest or most efficient in 2009.
Statistical releaseSource:
Statistics Finland / Economy-wide material flow accounts
Description of indicator
The accounts comprise data on domestic and foreign material inputs into
Finland's economy, on domestic and foreign hidden flows as well as on materials
export.
Domestic direct inputs refer to materials extracted from domestic nature
for further processing in the economy. Examples of these would be wood and
minerals used as raw materials, earth materials used in construction, and plants
and wild animals used as food for animals and humans.
Foreign direct inputs
comprise imports of processed and raw materials. Correspondingly, exports
comprise of raw and processed materials exported abroad.
Domestic hidden flows refer to the transfers and transformations of natural materials that are made in connection with their extraction from nature or with construction. Examples of these would be logging waste left in forests, and wall rock of ore mines. Hidden flows of imports are comprised of the direct inputs and hidden flows which are used abroad to produce imported goods but which do not show in the weight of imported raw materials or products.
The total material requirement calculated from these accounts is the sum of domestic and foreign direct inputs and hidden flows. Direct inputs represent the actual volume of material entering the Finnish economy and, together with domestic hidden flows, the material volume behind the burdening of the domestic environment. The total material requirement of our economy is obtained by adding to this the hidden flows of imports, i.e. the global ecological environmental burdening of our economy.
